Me and My Bee : Pollination for the Nation, Save the Bees, Save the World.
Me and My Bee, produced by ThisEgg Productions, showed at the Brighton Komedia, as part of the Brighton Fringe festival. As a family show it opened with our star Bee, Joe Boylan, whose bee-dancing kept the families waiting in thrall as the show began. Given it was the hottest weekend of the year, the show was full with a great space front of stage for little ones to sit and play. With a performance of an hour, the cast of three (Joe, Josie and Greta) did an amazing job at keeping young minds captivated and engaged on one of the most important issues of our time.
After some audience dancing and getting-to-know you’s, the show cracked on with a heart-warming explanation of why we need our bees! Music and dance magically explained some scientific facts for young minds, on how amazing and understated our bees actually are! By asking the audience to be Bees, the show asked everyone to see what Bee they were given on a slip as they arrived. As the audience stood up tons of fast facts came buzzing out. Such as the bee flaps its wings 200 times a minute and flies up to 500 miles over its 6-week lifespan. How the miner bee can burrow in to wood and how a Carpenter bees alone accounts for 750 species world wide. And also how Honey Bees are just one type of bee, yet all bees are responsible for pollinating seventy out of the top 100 human food crops — which supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition. With a brilliant mash up of flip charts and Donald Trump’s climate change policies, led by Josie, the message was hit home just how each single bee is to us, if only to the adults.
Towards the end the sad plight of the bees was felt when Joe, our star bee, fell in love with a flower (Greta). It was more tear jerking than the Time Travellers Wife, as the poor red flower suffered from drought and was then dug up and replaced with a concrete tower block. Where would our poor Bee after suffering pesticides and a loss of his beloved flower go now to gather his nectar? What to do? The sketch easily put our global bee crisis into symbolic terms, for even the youngest of minds to understand.
The show closed and with another thoughtful touch everyone as given a facts sheet on how to help save the Bees and join the Bee Party along with a pack of seeds. Me and My Bee is a very carefully and cleverly created family show, telling one the most important stories of our time. By the end you will be a fully signed up member to the Bee Party and an absolute bee buddy. The show is touring so why not Help Save the Bees one bee at a time.