You can’t seem to leave the house without somebody asking for your email address, or whether you’re on Facebook or not. As we’ve witnessed in the past decade, technological advances have never been so progressive. The decade that has given us the iPhone, Social Media and the notorious Selfie shows no signs of slowing down as we attempt to catch up with the times and keep up with the Joneses…
Marking The Human Zoo Theatre Company‘s stage debut, The Hive questions what it means to lose your identity and individuality in a system adamant on suppressing its followers. The piece looks at our growing dependence on technology and its consequences of communicational breakdowns. Designated to a subterranean existence, inhabitants find themselves fighting against being human and turning into emotionless machines; an eternal battle against authority and the working classes.
War torn, the feeling of societal and political unrest becomes the unseen backdrop, Koto’s (Nick Gilbert) prologue of conflicts beginning 100 years prior to The Hive’s creation becoming an underlying premise throughout the piece. Submerged miles upon miles underground, individuals live a life of imprisonment as they’re assigned to 8×8 prison cells and continually placed under surveillance. Gilbert’s heroic Koto serves as the beacon of hope, the rebellious figure intent on changing the current state of affairs. Liberty Bliss‘ choreography elaborates on the claustrophobic nature of the institutionalised environment, adding adrenaline fuelled moments of panic and turmoil as the ensemble crash onto wooden boxes whilst agonisingly reaching out for justice and freedom.
Fleur Ruth‘s Sara and Chris Hooper‘s The Controller supply the menacing and chilling face of the faceless power structure. Two characters brainwashed by the inhumane principles of the totalitarian system, elevated by a sense of the God Complex, as they dictate rules and regulations through television screens and windows. Nick Gilbert‘s Koto and Florence O’Mahony‘s Miri humanise the production, a loving couple seeking escapism from the constraints of the Hive, whilst Matthew J Morgan‘s Rooben represents an idealistic society of hope and freedom.
Rosalind Hoy directs a dark and sustained production, a dystopian reality of crushed dreams and bottled up emotion against a simplistic set of worn down asymmetric brick walls. Over riding themes of Technology and surveillance manifest themselves through metallic octopus like monsters to swarming snake-esque androids. Photo frames symbolise windows of the soul, a motif used throughput the piece to also distance the ensemble from one another. A powerful reference to the computer dominated culture in which we find ourselves immersed by, these moments create resonant tableaux’s of a generation lost in a world of computer screens, keyboards and the world wide web. The Hive inventively incorporates puppetry, choreography and a jarring electronic soundtrack, creating an immediate production with hints of the past. The show’s steady pace just misses out on the feeling of paranoia and hysteria, therefore losing a sense of dramatic tension. 3/5
The Hive is currently showing at Jacksons Lane Theatre until Saturday 3rd May. For more information on the production, visit here…
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