If a play about bees and their relationships with people interests you, make your way to Collaborative Artists Ensemble’s production of the West Coast Premiere of Elena Hartwell’s A Strange Disappearance of Bees at the Raven Playhouse in the NoHo Arts District running through Nov.17
In this beautifully written story, five characters are forever connected as the present collides with the past in this realistic, poignant and down-to-earth drama.
A newcomer to town, a Vietnam veteran, a baker, a farmer and a beekeeper search for identity, love and the right thing to do while bees disappear all around them.
Hartwell intertwines long monologues about bees voiced by Jean Gilpin (Rud) forcing us to not only surrender our pre-conceived notions about bees and their place in the universe, but as to their disappearance, relationships with the other characters and the information provided regarding Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
As with Collaborative Artists Ensemble’s last Los Angeles showing at the Raven, Carson Mc Cullers’ “The Square Root of Wonderful,” there is nothing false or conceited about this play.
After productions in Vermont and Detroit, Hartwell’s words sing honestly and truly, and yet make us believe that we have met people like these characters somewhere in our dusty dawns. The five characters here all feel so natural and real on stage that after a while their lives become a part of ours. A writer cannot get a better compliment.
Director Steve Jarrard allows the language, emotion and action to flow crisply and confidently. He understands the ecological definition of the bees’ loss as well as the family story innately.
Jarrard’s touch may be light, but his voice is powerful as he steers this incredibly-gifted cast.
Christian T. Chan (Robert) in his Los Angeles theatrical debut, is all presence, power and naivete. His is a convincing and welcome turn.
Brian A. Pollack (Callum) gives a truly naturalistic portrayal that unglues fingers and is not short on substance.
Meg Wallace (Karin) After playing Mollie in “The Square Root of Wonderful,” Wallace shines again with an unmatched tenderness, innocence and unmitigated backbone that make her character and her the actress who they are.
Ian Patrick Williams (Cashman) portrays his character with a rare naturalistic fervor that especially in Act II makes the play what it is. At times, it is hard to see Williams acting because he is so free flowing.
But it is Gilpin who gives a powerhouse performance of passion, pain and pathos.
The former Royal Shakespeare and BBC veteran, boldly narrates the bee monologues while exactly, unpredictably but beautifully portraying Rud.
Gilpin’s turn is reason enough to see the play. She is the anchor on which the ship rests.
To see Gilpin voice the bee monologues is akin to seeing Babe Ruth hit a home run: you have to be there in person to feel the full impact.
Truly, Gilpin steals the show with one of the best Los Angeles stage performances of this or any year: one part sensitivity, another wisdom.
Furthering the message is Jason Ryan Lovett’s Lighting Design.
All in all, A Strange Disappearance of Bees is a unique and deeply moving ode to the past and what bees once were and the dire situation that they find themselves in today. Somehow, during the course of the play, the bees are humanized. No small task.
Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pmTICKETS: $20, Seniors: $15RESERVATIONS/INFORMATION:(323) 860-6569WHERE: Raven Playhouse, 5233 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601
