There has been much social commentary recently on the importance of Bees to our natural world, and the danger we face by their dwindling populations. The Swarm is a new production billed as ‘a choral celebration of bees’, and on the face of it, the subject seems ripe for the picking when it comes to music, after all bees communicate through vibration and work together as a colony in ordered patterns.
Ten talented ladies take on the role of a colony of bees, and just like bees they perform together throughout. The programme tells us they all have roles but it would be impossible to distinguish them while on stage. In the hour long show they take us on a journey of the bees waking up to swarming and scouting, and finally forming the honeycomb.
The Swarm is most definitely a performance piece for an acquired taste, if you are not prepared to invest in the show then it can easily become a cacophony of sound. But look a little deeper and you will find some beautiful choral sounds, complimented with well thought out movements.
However, some parts can feel slow to develop and while this is meant to demonstrate the bees cycle, when it comes to a performance it’s easy to lose the audience’s attention, especially when there isn’t an obviously apparent story-line, and a quick glance around the room demonstrated this point.
In saying that, these elongated segments did allow time to really focus in on the individual performers and there’s no doubting the passion and commitment of all involved. The Swarm is an interesting performance piece that displays the life of a bee in extraordinary detail, but that detail might just be too off-putting for general audiences.
