A Bee in the Heart of Her

If Nora Hel­mer, Hen­rik Ibsen’s famous fema­le prot­ago­nist, could speak any­thing bes­i­des Henrik’s text, what would she say? How about Hed­da Gab­ler, Mrs. Sør­by from The Wild Duck or Elli­da Wan­gel, The Lady From the Sea? Can cha­rac­ters express them­sel­ves bey­ond their play­w­right? In song, perhaps?

This is exact­ly whe­re Sibyl Kempson’s alche­mi­cal new work A Bee in the Heart of Her comes in. Over the cour­se of a wea­ving work­shop for reco­ve­ring Ibsen women led by Mrs. Sør­by in a rundown com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter, the­se trail­bla­zing cha­rac­ters con­front mis­trans­la­ti­ons, misun­ders­tood ori­g­ins, mista­ken fates, mans­plai­ning and ever­y­thing else that Ibsen got wrong, in detail.

With Kempson’s lyri­cal text set to ori­gi­nal music com­po­sed by Robert M. Johan­son (Natu­re Thea­ter of Okla­ho­ma), the­se women tell their own sto­ries and final­ly set the record straight, once and for all.