The Soho Theatre in the West End of London
June 21 - July 15, 2006
By Hideki Noda and Colin Teevan
Directed by Hideki Noda

Cast: Kathryn Hunter, Tony Bell, Glyn Pritchard and Hideki Noda

http://www.sohotheatre.com

Also at Theatre Tram, Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo
(Japanese version with a Japanese cast)
June 22 - July 9, 2007
(English version with original London cast)
12 -29 July 2007

"The Bee" premiered at the Soho Theatre on June 21, 2006, just when the main buzz in London was surrounding the four-yearly football World Cup in Germany, with throngs of excited sports fans in the busy West End shopping and amusement area where the theater is located.

But among London's many discerning fans of cutting-edge theater, the biggest fixture and the most exciting phenomenon that summer was ''The Bee,'' the second production in England by Japan's foremost contemporary dramatist for the last quarter-century, Hideki Noda.

Noda's story of an ordinary office worker named Ido, who confounds all expectations after his wife and child are taken hostage by an escaped convict named Ogoro, is as extraordinary as it is darkly believable after nondescript Ido himself seizes Ogoro's wife and child in retaliation.

Noda took English audiences' breath away with his clever and imaginative use of props, and the quick role changes by the play's four actors. Finally, the frantic but arrestingly thought-provoking comedy grabbed everyone's attention as it rushed to its intriguing conclusion without any let-up in its pace.

Then, the next year, "The Bee" landed in Japan, where Noda gave audiences the extra present of a Japanese cast and new twists to his direction that brought an even more physical dimension to the production. As a result, in 2007 Noda almost monopolized the main theater awards in Japan with his intercontinental ''Bee."

Reviews of "The Bee"

* The evening swings from hyperactive satire to thought-provoking nightmare,
(Dominic Cavendish /The Daily Telegraph, 28.06.2006)

* The evening's multi-tasking award goes to Noda, who has not only written, but also acts and directs. Manga comic-strip frenzy prevails initially as the four-strong cast rush around playing hacks and coppers, ...from gorgon to geshia. How easily, ''The Bee'' reminds us chillingly, we accept a new status quo, even if the idea of it outraged us yesterday.
(Fiona Mountford / Evening Standard, 28.06.2008)
★★★★

* This is a highly unusual theatrical gem; part slapstick comedy, part satire, part macabre dance. ...informs this production, so too does Noda's. Not only does he pull off a series of dazzling coups de theatre as director, he also cross-dresses as Ogoro's wife.
(Rachel Halliburton / Time Out, 05.07.2006)
★★★★★

* The play explores ruthlessness and the art of playing the role of victim or aggressor. It also suggests that a streak of merciless cunning lies beneath the veneer of polite society. But most disturbingly, Colin Teevan's adaptation, together with Hideki Noda's inventive production, draw links between comedy and pain, beauty and cruelty, particularly as associated with Japanese culture.
(Sarah Hemming / The Financial Times, 29.06.2008)
★★★