This Spring’s 1212 : As Bees in Honey Drown
That’s a strange name for a play
In Douglas Carter Beane’s As Bees in Honey Drown, a young writer gets caught up in the conflict of fantasy and reality and is enticed by access to fast fame and fortune. In a society obsessed with celebrity, this comic satire on contemporary popular culture, the allure of success, and the true value of art and of love, is a reflection on Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame.” Fame like honey, may taste sweet but it can also be a sticky, enveloping mess.
Live from the producer: Peter Parisi’s thoughts on producing this play
Since it was published in 1998, I have thought about producing As Bees in Honey Drown at Milton. A scripted comedy to balance our spring offerings seemed appropriate, since an interpretation of The Odyssey would be going up in King Theatre. With Fuddy Meers as the winter 1212 production, this play finally matched with a Milton season.
Ben Brantley of the New York Times referred to As Bees in Honey Drown as "one of the liveliest satiric romps of the last decade." Winner of the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner playwriting award (1998) and a nomination for the Drama Desk Best Play, it is a fast-paced satire well suited for 1212. Through interconnected scenes that feel like cinematic bursts, the foibles of humanity are exaggerated to show how ridiculous they truly are — how the pursuit of fast fame and fortune is both pointless and addictive. It shows the way people can be destroyed by a world of their own making, "as bees in honey drown.”
In addition to the satire, the play has a level of camp. Style is just as important as substance, if not more so, and the style is extravagant and embellished, bitingly comic and defiantly individualistic.
As Bees in Honey Drown is a play about art and artifice. In the play, art imitates life, life also imitates art. Are we who we were meant to be, as opposed to being who we were born ? Is there a difference between who we were meant to be and who we want to be, or who we think we should be? Is a life of celebrity an empty one? Does the pursuit of it take someone further away from who they truly are meant to be?
This is also a story about love. Who do you love? What is real love? How do you know? Are there boundaries and limits? Can you choose to close yourself off to love? In the play (art imitating life), the love story is complicated. The protagonist, Evan Wyler, (Nick Ginsburg, Class II), must decipher what is real.
The play features excellent roles including a con artist or villainess, Alexa Vere de Vere, (Mary Lopez, Class II). She is beautiful, intelligent, stylish, connected, and creative. She is an amalgamation of iconic, eccentric characters like Rosalind Russell’s “Auntie Mame,” Liza Minelli’s “Sally Bowles,” and Audrey Hepburn’s “Holly Golightly,” fabulous intoxicating women that you want to be around always.
The play affords opportunities for experienced as well as novice actors. Many in the cast take on the challenge of playing multiple roles--some play as many as five distinct roles. (Noah Berman, Class I, Bikrum Chahal, Class I, Alec Seymour, Class I, Marilyn Petrowski, Class II, and Soerny Cruz, Class IV).
An additional challenge was rehearsing in Wigg in the spring, the shortest rehearsal period of the year. We have essentially four weeks to rehearse. However, for seniors, this is generally their last chance to perform in a Milton production as the show goes up just as Senior projects begin. Fortunately, I am working with an outstanding directorial team: Lindsay Starks, Class I, Vanya “D” Stokes, Class II, and Emilie Trehu, Class IV.
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