Brand New HONEY BEE BABY Is Abuzz With Meaning at Strand

Honey Bee Baby is A Buzzing Nest Of Questions at Strand through January 24th, 2025. 

The first thing I’d like to say is this: I liked Honey Bee Baby enough that I’m considering seeing it another time during its month-long run. If you’ve found your taste in theatre to run concurrent with mine, go ahead and just buy tickets now.

I want live theater to astonish or puzzle me, to offer me a different perspective or to show me something I’ve never considered. Honeybee Baby  does all of that and then some. One thing I especially loved is that for the first third or so, I wasn't sure what was happening. 

It’s produced at Baltimore's Strand Theater by Rapid Lemon, a company with a mission to foster theatre that is innovative, quirky, sometimes weird, often funny… you’re not likely to have seen it before, if it’s from Rapid Lemon. The down side of that is that if you like it, you’re not likely to see it again.

Both Rapid Lemon and Strand are known for promoting new works. Strand, in addition to presenting pristine theatrical offerings and forward-looking adaptations of traditional classics, is devoted to amplifying the voices of women. Honey Bee Baby is a new work by Philadelphia-based Erlina Ortiz (she/her/ella), and this script makes me hold my breath. Not only is it jam-packed with surprises, there are several extremely important things that are completely unsaid in dialogue, which makes up for a few less subtle lines near the conclusion of the show.

Director Jalice Ortiz-Corral directed Variations on The End in 2023 and Variations on Courage in 2024, and capably managed to bring humor and a unifying aesthetic to a pastiche of short dramas. In the case of Honey Bee Baby, she allows the script to breathe and the actors to unfurl. Her blocking is visually satisfying, and includes multi-leveled use of space in 3 dimensions to hold audience interest. There are a great many scenes, and the whole show has a snappy, cinematic jump-cut feel to it, but the pace is slowed by actual human-driven scene-changing in real time. When I had this critique of a different production a few months ago, my companion pointed out that the scene change time allowed for audience processing of the previous sequence, which I hadn’t considered. A bit of a lag, especially in a brand-new piece with some challenging concepts, may benefit the show as a whole. 

In a small theater like Strand, there’s not room for some of the fancy stuff used by larger venues. What is here is deployed judiciously and with thoughtfulness. I am again impressed by Strand’s use of a screen to create a deeper, more multi-media vision of theater, and in this case, am impressed that it’s employed to indicate history, context and inner turmoil. I rather wish for a more ‘window-y’ treatment of it for the times when it was used as a window, and spend several moments considering how that might have been done before realizing that, as a writer, ‘how’ is none of my concern. Rapid Lemon’s producer, Max Garner, is responsible for both sound and projection design, which are handled deftly, though my unfamiliarity with the songs used as interstitials make me wonder if I’m missing something. He opens the show with a visual history of the world, then the perspective shifts and we see our world from an outsider’s POV, which adds to the unspoken premise of the dystopia we inhabit for the next hundred minutes. 

The set, designed by Justin Nepomuceno, features modular, multi-use blocks, a platform that lifts actors to different levels, hexagons, the colors yellow and black, and gives the actors a space upon which to play. As we enter the theater, an uncovered set primes the audience for the story, and this set reflects much about the show, thematically and structurally, without overly obvious visual flourishes that would give away more than is necessary. Nepomuceno avoids plot-relevant disclosures, including temporal ones.

The sound is good, dialogue is clear and audio effects add much to the atmosphere of the show. The siren sounds of Baltimore City are occasionally intrusive, but not disruptively so. 

Lighting by Martin Smith does the job of illumination and blackouts in an unobtrusive way- which isn’t particularly remarkable. What IS remarkable is the precision of the ‘special’ spots which create, all by themselves, separate locations. Each of the locations is distinct, not to be confused with the other ‘places’ in the script, and there are MANY. This is hard enough to do on a large stage, but to do it successfully in a space as small as Strand approaches genius.

Playing the absolutely crucial role of a temperamental child Clarisa, K.S. Garner is convincing and heartbreaking in her portrayal of an emotionally ‘irregular’ child. I mean ‘irregular’ in the context of the show; I imagine I am not the only child-interactive adult in the audience who recognizes in Clarisa a youngster of their own acquaintance.

As Clarisa’s parent, identified as ‘Mother,’ Sharon Maguire gives a show-stealing performance. Her character journey is perhaps superior even to that of Malisa, the central figure of the semi-chronological story, and the moments in which she is funny are a delightful surprise. 

Rakell Foye, in a performance that makes me wonder why I haven’t seen her more often, gives us an amazing range of human emotion as Malisa, the central character in this show. Her balance between societal ‘norms’ and her own personal goals is relatable and poignant. 

Isaiah C. Evans plays Ray, Malisa’s rule-adherent husband, and in the role is assured, confident and very smooth. His vocals make certain plot points almost immediately and his face is an excellent reflection of ‘husbandly’ emotion. 

Kaitlyn Fowler as Maria comes in towards the end of the show to drive the crisis. She is ironically funny, and for those of us who are caregivers, frightfully familiar. 

Supporting characters are played by Valerie Lewis, whose wry delivery is relatable and often her dialogue serves as a surrogate for the audience; Pierre Walters, who gets a very big situational laugh from an excellently timed one-word question; and Adanya Koger-Hobson who quietly gives every character they inhabit a distinct personality.

I’m in stark admiration of Costume Designer Deana Fisher Brill’s work. The costuming is highly relevant to the overall theme, and a fascinating gown worn by K.S. Garner’s Clarisa is a creative wonder. A detail of a shoe is plot-relevant. This integration of theatrical elements is wonderful to see, and hats off to the clever props person who took technology to another level with some readily available materials. Well done!

Though the show is under an hour and a half, the drama and tension are high enough that an intermission is a nice moment to breathe. One fifteen-minute intermission allows for snack purchase and a restroom break. Be advised that one accessible restroom off the lobby serves everyone. 

Strand sits in the center of a typical city block in Lauraville, a cool and funky part of Baltimore City. You’ll find pizza carryout at the corner, a liquor store, a smoke/vape shop and a CVS across the street, as well as Silver Queen Cafe, Mickey’s Joint and Lost In The 50s Diner. If you get there early enough, you might enjoy tea at Emma’s Tea Spot before a Sunday matinee. Street parking is available, though not abundant; however, there is a free parking lot behind Emma’s for those patronizing the businesses of Lauraville.

Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes, including one intermission

Rapid Lemon presents Honey Bee Baby by  Erlina Ortiz January 4–26, 2025

Performances are live and in person at Strand Theater, 5426 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD 21214. General Admission Tickets are $25, and available online through Rapid Lemon only. 

In the interests of inclusivity, the matinee performance on Sunday, January 19th will require face masks. Masks will be available at the box office.

Photo, L to R: K.S. Garner as Clarisa, Sharon Maguire as Mother, Rakell Foye as Malisa and Isaiah C. Evans as Ray. 

Photo by Shealyn Jae Photography 

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