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August 25 - September
16, 2000 Theater and the movies are filled with tales of reinvention, which are populated with lively, ambitious characters such as Auntie Mame, Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," and Sally Bowles in "Cabaret" who have rearranged their personal histories with gusto and great imagination. Add to this list of great pretenders Alexa Vere de Vere, the absolutely fabulous whirlwind who blows through Douglas Carter Beane's savvy comedy "As Bees in Honey Drown." The play's title is a catch-phrase of Alexa's, and as the story unfolds, the playwright's witty indictment of our culture's eternal obsession with fame, celebrity and the good life. In showbiz, or probably any business, there is a moment on the cusp of success when the right phone call, the right contact, the right schmooze might catapult someone to the stratosphere of the high rollers. It is a moment of supreme vulnerability, ripe with the possibility of living rich and famous, or struggling and marginal. This is the kind of hungry moment that kicks off "As Bees in Honey Drown."
Alexa is the seemingly right contact who approaches Evan Wyler at the right moment when his debut novel has marked him as "the next hot writer." Soon after he appears bare-chested in a trendy magazine, glamorous Alexa swoops in, shoves cash in his hand, and begs him to write a screenplay, cooing, "You see, I want this film to be the story of my life, which is too entrancing, almost even for me." She seems to be Evan's passport to a life of privilege, and soon, he's surprised to find himself falling in love with the international woman of mystery. If Evan feels out of control in Alexa's extravagant lifestyle, it is nothing compared to what he feels when she disappears. By play's end, Alexa does help Evan, but in a way that neither could have anticipated.
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As
Bees In Honey Drown
