Reading Room_03 Bardsley v Maeterlinck / Social Insect Trilogy / part i. The Life of the Bee
With just a couple of turntables, two female bee-ings remix Belgian symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck’s classic natural history text The Life of the Bee, in it’s entirety, to a soundtrack of Earth’s drone music.
Creating a hive party and under the influence of exotic substances secreting from their own bodies, anthropological questions rise to the surface when the vinyl grooves are scraped by venom styluses in this elaborate installation. Why are these workers planning to massacre the males? Are you OK Honey?
Concept – Julia Bardsley
Creation & Performance – Julia Bardsley with Moa Johansson
Reading – Grant Bardsley
Guest BJ’ing – Andrew Poppy & Owen Parry
Fierce Says
Julia is one of the most interesting figures in UK theatre with her highly visual and often macabre shows and installations. In this piece, you’re invited to drop in, stay a while, maybe have a drink: it’s a performance hangout to contemplate our current environmental and political crisis.
