The Bee

In The Bee, director Hideki Noda marries elements of slap-stick humour with overtly theatrical physicality in an unconventional adaptation of a violent Japanese short story. 

The story follows Mr Ido (Kathryn Hunter), who returns home from work to find that his wife and son are being held hostage and decides to take matters into his own hands.

Noda’s direction involves clever use of props so that elastic bands become police tape, microphones, and much to the audience’s delight, noodles. Hilarity ensues as we see a grown man whimper when the pencils he clutches are snapped as if they were his own fingers. Still, you can’t help but wince. While this provides an inventive alternative to naturalism, the emphasis on some props and blatant disregard for others render the technique a degree inconsistent. 

A comment on man’s inhumanity towards man, The Bee draws humour from a horrific situation, highlighting the cruel streak that exists in us all in a self-aware and consistently comedic way. Multi role-playing, gender swapping Hunter is infallible as Ido and a Brechtian insistence on direct address reminds us of the element of play that exists in the production of theatre; a testament to what this art form is capable of.Based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's story Plucking At Each Other, this manga imbued play follows an office work who returns home to find his family abducted. To get them back, he navigates an absurd game of revenge.

Anastasia Miari