The Bird And The Bee: The Bee

THE BIRD AND THE BEE: THE BEE
***
Underbelly, Iron Belly, 14:15

The performance on Matt Harley’s text is a drama about the teenagers’ solitude and their desire for confirmation in a world where the internet social networking is already a lifestyle. Successfully avoiding the traps of moralist preaches, the author chooses as main characters two girls at the age of identity crises ,15 years old, one of them who wants to become popular at any price and the other one who resigned herself to the thought of being weird.
Extremely well structured, the plot uses alternating action places that ensure a good rhythm: the action moves from the parents’ house to a disgusting basement where the lonely girl finds her quiet place, from Chloe’s meditations on what is happening around to surprising chat conversations. The tension is extremely well built in the scenario. The type of writing is surprising – the classical climactic point overlaps the final moment in the play. But having teens as characters, how could there possibly be something more important than the final hope to be liberated at any price, with any sacrifice?
When the reality is made by emails and chatting on the internet, where one can pretend to be anything one wants, that unlimited power to reinvent oneself for each new person makes the feelings of inadequacy be denied their sense. Thrown away in one forgotten corner of one’s soul, the feelings of inadequacy will unlikely find expression. One single classical and powerful ingredient in the plot, the death of the weirdo’s brother, determines a series of monologues regarding the existence of the emotions beyond words. The subtle intuition of psychological peculiarities of the characters makes the action surprising: the desire to be popular determines a girl to start a website for an unknown person who tragically died in an accident.
Out of the monologues of the inadequate Chloe grow some troubling ideas regarding the problems of an entire generation of teens: the tragedy is a way to testifying the existence of their emotions and to proving that they are (still) alive. The website created by the spoiled girl for keeping the memory of Chloe’s dead brother recalls the sentiment of irrevocability to people who never knew him, friends of a friend of a friend of an acquaintance etc. Through their involvement in Chloe’s tragedy hundreds of teens get a sense of identity they never had before, and this identity gives them a sense of purpose. Perhaps the exaggerated friendship claims of unknown people are a way of dealing with an inner feeling of emptiness, or perhaps they perform some kind of ritual that performs the repentance before the act to blame in order to receive some kind of magical protection against the real tragedies of life. The author does not solve the dilemmas and only raises this problem, linked with the major theme of the play which is the liberation from the feeling of emptiness.
The mirages created by the internet are the main theme of the play. “The Bird and The Bee: The Bee” enhances the idea that those mirages, when perpetuated at the social level, can change the very nature of emotional attachment and of the motivation. The performance brings into prominence the solitude of the teenager chatters, miserably unhappy in spite of all the comfort ensured by technological development. On an almost bare scene 3 actors perform all the characters, in a modern manner, committed to respect the message of the original play. One fine performance in the role of Chloe, who is a caring and loving nature unable to find her place among “responsible” people whom she calls marked by resignation .The rhythm conveys perfectly the stages of her quest. You should try to see the performance for yourselves.

Actors: ***
Text:*****
Scenography :**
Directing: ***