Be More Bee
London, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Exploring the relationship between climate crisis and national identity, through the lens of Britain’s tiniest activists - the bees.
Be More Bee dramatises an immigration process, that styles itself as a welcome party. New arrivals to the UK must participate enthusiastically, and learn to become more like a bee, in order to be accepted.
We are looking at the connection between the climate crisis and rising nationalism, and how we can become more like the bees and care for the world and each other, without losing our humanity.
Bees work as a team. They (literally, almost) make the world go round, pollinating the food chain that keeps us all alive. We can breathe and live on Earth, because of the oxygen from bee-pollinated plants. Honeybees fix their eyes (they have five!) on the future, working as hard as possible to secure the survival of their species. They are also under threat.
In this time of climate crisis, we could all afford to pay more attention to the bees, and take a leaf out of their book.
(Not out of their plants, though, leave their plants alone, for crying out loud!
When the chips are down and the world is burning, things can all become about the future of only one race, or only one nation. Human beings have always only been able to understand themselves, or survive, as part of a wider group. Naturally we form not only individual identities, but communal, tribal ones. While this is an essential part of human civilisation, when resources are scarce each group constricts, pushing out any members that are not strictly ‘necessary’. Put simply, survival mode makes us selfish. The beehive operates similarly, expelling male bees (who do not work) over the winter to protect the hive itself at all costs. We want to know whether we can find a way to look for the survival of human life in the climate crisis over the survival of the nation state in its current form. Can our communal identities reorient to include the rest of the living world, not just our own little patches of it?
Nationalism is on the rise all over the world, and in Britain, this tends to have a nostalgic flavour of ‘wartime spirit’ and ‘taking one for the team’, much in the manner of the self-sacrificial honeybee!
But is everyone sacrificing as much as everyone else? Is this kind of nationalism really fair, or tolerant? Can we find a Britishness that is?
We want to have fun with our audience, bond as a group, and celebrate some delightful traits of the bee in a quintessentially British way.
We want to see how celebrations of nationhood and community can make us better citizens.
But what happens when the national quirks we celebrate together are limited to formalities from the top of the class system? How can this limit us? How can this fit with our national or global identities? Which traditions do we cling to and which do we discard?
Increasing urban sprawl threatens many rural communities that have upheld their traditions for centuries - surely no one could bear to lose the idiosyncrasies of the village fete, could they?
But this is the real world, and not everyone is invited to the party. Power structures are inherent in any party: with the host at the top of the pyramid and guests taking their respective positions in the descending hierarchy. Just as in the rigid and often brutal structures of the hive, so must humans find their place, awkwardly waiting in the bathroom queue and trying not to cry, after hearing their host, Sharon (never liked her), slating the cheap plonk they brought.
Parties can expose how we truly feel about each other.
Jenni Mackenzie-Jones - Writer and Performer
Bees are fascinating creatures. The intricacy of their lives, building something so much greater than themselves together, is magical to me. I also think there is something beautiful about community activities for humans! Coming together and donating time, or food, or energy to a group event like a British fete or street party, can build a heartwarming sense of group identity that’s hard to beat. But when fear creeps in and we need to save the world, things that seem sweet can quickly turn sour. I want to make a show about when working together becomes about us and them, or worse, when working together becomes telling others to work together against ‘them’.
We are on the verge of climate breakdown, and Britain is more divided than I have known in my lifetime. We’ve got to find a way to come together, and many British traditions are fun, cute, and centre the community. But some traditions are misused by the powerful, and some were always bad. Having worked in comedy and devised theatre, I want to play with the absurdities and power dynamics that pervade national identity. How can we sift through the murk and become the British, European and global stewards we need to be?
Valentin Stoev - Director
I love honey, the product of hours of hard work of our life keepers - the bees. Whether it’s their single-mindedness and focus to work for their hive, their ability to work hard or their community spirit, the bees never cease to fascinate me with their numerous virtues. I like exploring those topics from today’s point of view and thinking of the world that we live in. It’s 2020 and although we live in a relatively peaceful time, we seem to be more divided than ever. Nationalism is on the rise, we are scared of the ‘other’ and fear has taken hold of us… It’s very exciting for me to explore these issues in an audience participatory show like this. With the help of the British bee we’ll try to unravel some unexplored valleys and some truth.
Abe Buckoke - Performer
Bees for me have gone from a fascination as a child, to a fear as a teenager, and a minor obsession as an adult. I think the sting of the bee is a very arresting thing, like a gun in a holster, it captivates your attention in a truly physical way. But behind each sting, sits a bee. An intelligent, social and hard working individual, that flies an estimated two circumferences of the globe in her short and highly productive life. I've never seen the borders between countries from space, but nationalistic ideas are simple, loud, and strong. I'm interested in looking at the what these ideas give us, and what they take from us. I trained with Jenni and Valentin at RCSSD on the Collaborative and Devised Theatre Pathway. I love devising and clowning. Since Graduating I've worked with Katie Mitchell, Inspector Sands and Eastern Angles.
Harry Linden Johnson - Sound Designer
I'm really buzzed to be a part of this project exploring the stinging issue "Britishness" in 2020. The sounds of the quaint British fete and the everyday hum of the hive will be a fertile ground to explore sonically.
Edd Kahn – Production Manager
This is a somewhat new venture for me. After years of experience in Film and HETV production, I was drawn to Be More Bee because of the intimate nature of the show. Film is a global art form, exhibited around the world and created for an international audience, but the interactivity of Be More Bee gives you a community experience, which celluloid rarely offers. This performance shines a light on the British values that, as a nation, we hold so dear – illuminating the structures that created modern day Britain. At times, the audience effectively acts as an ensemble cast, giving us new challenges as we try and prep, produce and present this lovely show.
I have recently worked on HBO/Sky action drama Strike Back (Series 8), Sir Steve McQueen’s latest BBC project looking at minority communities in London, and Gurinder Chadha’s heart-warming film, Blinded by the Light.
Gabriela Garay Villanueva - Producer
I am excited to be part of the entertaining story of Be More Bee! As an International producer living in the UK, I was inspired by how Jenni Mackenzie-Jones cleverly makes us realize what is happening around us today, using the bees as an example of a society where individuals consider the survival of the colony much more important than the survival of themselves. Be More Bee is about realizing the things that really matter in our society, about coming together and working towards a better future all together. Believe me, the audience won’t have time to be bored as they will be taking part! Personally, I am a highly passionate senior producer with over 3 years’ experience in the events industry internationally. I have just started my MA in Creative Producing at Mountview and I am now eager for a new challenge, looking to accelerate my own professional development as a producer in the artistic world.
Emma Mackenzie - Dramaturg
I am quite scared of bees because they put the hive above everything and I am a human being who has been taught to put the self above everything. The unfamiliar is frightening! But not necessarily wrong! Those little guys hold the weight of creation on their tiny little bee shoulders after all. Do you think they know that? It’s an excellent excuse for all the ruthlessness to be fair to them – hell of a lot of pressure.
I was drawn to this project because of my own research into nation-building and the mythologies created to protect and perpetuate hierarchical power structures. I also get to tell my big sister she is wrong a lot, and she calls it ‘really helpful’ – ultimate bonus.
To make this show we need your help to create a quality piece of theatre, that can go on to have a future life. Considering fairness and tolerance in our national identity, in the face of climate crisis and rising hate crime could not be more important right now.
We have made the show interactive, to create a really live experience, where we invest in the idea of citizenship and what it is to be together, and to be British - we believe in this as a unique way to engage audiences and want to take it further.
We want to reach as many people as possible, and provoke thinking about bees, citizenship and national identity. There will be three performances at the Vault Festival in late February and early March this year. This is an exciting opportunity at one of London’s leading arts festivals, but we want the show to have further performances, beyond Vault 2020.
We are an independent project without any external funding. Lightning Bugs as a company will currently not be paid for the making of the piece, but we will need to pay our collaborators, and for costs incurred in the course of the production. We will need to pay for a rehearsal space and any money provided will also allow us to source set and costume, and work with a designer, sound designer and production manager, to create an atmospheric bee world that can reveal the darker side of nationalism.
We also need money to promote the performance, to ensure as many people as possible see the show - we are working with a part-time producer to help make this happen.
Alongside the theatre production, we will be creating a series of hand-drawn resources, with tips and tricks for attracting bees to your garden, balcony, or window box, and spaces to record your own experiences with the bees. We will set up a mailing list for those who would like to receive these, and promote this to our audiences at Vault.
Our long term plans include setting up a series of workshops with young people seeking asylum in this country. By bringing them into the rehearsal room we will be able to see Britain through an entirely new lens. We believe this to be a crucial aspect of understanding Britishness in its totality. (You can tell a lot about a host by the way they treat their guests.)
Without you we cannot do these things, help us encourage Britain to Be More Bee!
This project successfully funded on 28th February 2020