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Presented by FlamingoFeather

THE BEEKEEPER

Photo by Fernanda Rappa

Conceived & Performed by Simon Rice

Directed by Ilana Gorban

Lighting Designer:   Serena Cundari

Animation:  Victor Craven

Beekeeping Advisor: Chris Deaves

The Space

April 5, 2009

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A review by Barry Grantham for EXTRA! EXTRA!

Come to think of it – and that’s just what I propose to do – the term ‘One Man Show’ is open to a number of qualifications. For example, in the present case the performer, Simon Rice is supported by a number of other talented persons: his director Ilana Gorban, his lighting designer Serena Cundari and there are some stunning animated visions by Victor Craven. Whereas, in other respects this is truly a One Man Show.  
Frequently, a show of the ‘an audience with’ variety is termed ‘one man’ (or woman), but this is really a one person, plus however many people there are in the audience show, as they become very much part of the event. The Beekeeper belongs to that much rarer event - like for example Krapp’s Last Tape and Aubrey’s Brief Lives. - a totally solo performance.

Mr Rice’s character is very much alone. For a brief moment he may make eye contact with a member of the audience.  Ah! He knows there is someone here - no, not a bit of it. He is not seeing present time. He sees some figure of his imagination, an attractive woman recalled from a dance he went to long ago, the admonishing figure of his bishop, (our protagonist is a clergyman) or more likely a solitary bee straying far  afield in dereliction of his honey gathering duties.(yes, he is also the beekeeper)

This is an exercise in aloneness. An individual behaving, as we all do, when free from censoring gaze. Correction! How can I possibly know how most people behave?  There may be those, who behave in the same rational manner they employ in a social context, but not me and not Mr Rice, or he could never have created the Beekeeper,  who stares into space, arranges the items on his desk with obsessive exactitude. Nothing must be a millimetre out of place. He finds an envelope out of place and replaces it via a circuitous route.  Each move becomes part of some arcane ritual.   A breakfast tray is produced. He loses the egg, and produces it like a conjuror; safely in the egg cup he attacks it with a furiously vibrating teaspoon. The hand holding the toast rises to his mouth like a robot, and he bites at it in a preordained rhythm.   Then there is the self interview – the interviewer and the interviewed - swift, skilful, unnerving. Then in quieter mode he draws from a box a burgundy piece of knitwear. His own? A woman’s? His relationship with the item of clothing is obscure, but it induces a sort of languor, and building on a few natural languid moves, he creates a skilful dance notable for its freedom from any academic technique.

This has all been low key, and we have been satisfied. But we are in for a surprise. Near blackout and a little squiggle of laser attaches itself to him, and introduces a High-Tec climax to the performance culminating in the projection of silhouetted figures dancing in an abstract universe, which are echoed by the live performer in front of them.  (Strange memories of Astaire’s ‘Bojangles of Harlem’  from the film Swing Time).         
  
As yesterday was a single pilot performance, it is no good me recommending that you seek out the Space to see the show, but do look out for further performances of Simon Rice in The Beekeeper and other productions from the new company called FlamingoFeather.

A word about the venue, should you not know it – an oasis of calm and past charm in Dockland’s new world of steel, and glass and concrete - a former Presbyterian chapel, which though gutted of its pews, yet seems to retain a welcoming odour of sanctity.

Sunday, 5th April at 7PM   (One performance only)

The Space, 269 West Ferry Rd E14 3RS

0207 515 7799

www.space.org.uk

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