On Thursday, April 30, the doors of Wigg Hall opened to the first of three performances of Douglas Carter Beane’s As Bees in Honey Drown. In this 1212 production, 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.
“As Bees in Honey Drown is a play about art and artifice,” said performing arts department chair and director of the 1212 Play, Peter Parisi. “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?”
The second performance on Friday, May 1, begins at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, May 2, the show begins at 7 p.m.
