The Bee review, Soho Upstairs

When Ido's wife and child are taken hostage by escaped prisoner, Ogoro, respectable Ido turns the tables on the perpetrator by mirroring his actions. Across town he takes Ogoros family hostage, raping his wife and hacking off his son's fingers. As each finger is delivered to Ogoro, Ido receives the fingers of his own six-year-old son by return. Pain morphs into macabre brinksmanship.

Bee witched

But The Bee is more than a thriller, thrilling as it is. It's darkly funny, a series of balletic comic book freeze-frames that surprise and confound; an examination of how our lives turn on a sixpence. Yesterday's hero is today's villain, today's ravaged will tomorrow ravish, tomorrow's desired is next week discarded. Nothing is certain but change. Change drives Hideki Noda and Colin Teevan's extraordinary script.

Under Noda's imaginative direction (at one point the cast eat rubber bands with pencils and it really does look like noodles) the flexing of a calf muscle or a post-coital strut are more telling than any dialogue. In a switching of roles, Ido is played by Kathryn Hunter, a small, besuited, husky anti-hero with the movements of a cat and the power of a tiger. Noda himself plays Ogoro's wife with a delicacy that turns gender stereotyping on its head.  There is brilliant support from Glyn Pritchard as Ogoro's son and Clive Mendus as the policeman.

Conclusion: An extraordinary piece of theatre, The Bee starts with the energy of high camp and slowly morphs into pure tragedy, never once letting you catch your breath. This is the bee you don't want to shake out of your hair.

References
Soho Theatre, buy tickets
Hideki Noda, Wiki biog