The Tragic War and its Effect.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Theatre Severn

Tuesday 19^th-Saturday 23^rd May

This I believe will be the most difficult review for me to write. The reason will become apparent. Although the setting of this show was beautifully crafted and created, the lighting was superb, the cast were all well rehearsed, then came the sound. Oh dear. The sound tonight was poor and there was a lot of discussion during the interval about how people were struggling to hear it at all.

On further investigation one learned that they were using an immersive sound idea, that is not to mic the actors but instead mic the stage instead. It didn’t work the vast majority of the dialogue was lost and consequently the second one can’t hear something, the narrative is lost or becomes confusing. I heard little.

Using accents in the piece didn’t help the situation, even with great sound some of the words in these adoptive accents are lost. One was aware that it was a heightened and extremely emotional piece and from gesture one could see there was a clear understanding of the character’s situations and how they might react, but gesture in this instance was really only half the story again I am brought back to the fact that the majority of the actors were not heard or not heard clearly. That is a shame.

The narrative is all too real today and we follow a family’s trek across the world in search for asylum. We the British were not portrayed as overly helpful, maybe we as a nation were castigated slightly too much; there are wonderful British people trying as hard as they can to help in a nigh impossible situation. The British characters were either vacuous and patronising or officious to the point where hostility was only ever bubbling under. Are we like that as a nation or is that a harsh judgement? We all have our opinions on the boat people, it is a thorny issue to some, but those that are working to make these people’s flight slightly better, seem unmentioned in the play unless in derisory way. ! One knows not entirely fair.

The direction of the piece found its true mark. This was a well directed show by a director who understood the inhumanity of this entire situation and the themes were explored well leaving little doubt that these people go through so much just to be safe. The true lesson in all this Is, we have done this, we as a species. On it goes today for example, we have three men in this world, whom I won’t name but it’s obvious who they are, and they seem intent in destroying us all. The rest of us all just want a life of peace. Take away the visible differences between us all on this planet and you would find we are all the same. We all want the same, just peace and a chance to have a wonderful world and a wonderful life. It seems mad that just three people can jeopardise all that and the other 8 billion of us seem impotent to stop them. If only we could stand together and stand firm. Human nature won’t allow that; fear is indeed a vile master. The fact that we are just people trying to get by is one important point that isn’t lost at all in this drama.

In summary one is left to say, this show is well designed, well cast, well acted, but alas was victim to its own unwitting sacrifice, due to poor sound. It is day one and this review will be read. If you have tickets don’t worry, this was first night and there is always a gremlin or two. The true answer to the sound problem is the use of taped on face mics. I hope they see that and rectify the problem just as soon as they can. The show plays all week and I always say please go and see the show, see if I am wrong and hopefully you will find it every bit as brilliant as one is aware it can be,

This is a Three Star Review

Sofia Lewis