Review Roundup: THE APIARY World Premiere Opens at Second Stage Theater

It was a big night for Second Stage Theater which just celebrated the world premiere of Kate Douglas’ The Apiary, directed by Kate Whoriskey. The production has been extended one week and will now run through Sunday, March 3rd at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theater.

The play, which is the centerpiece production of Second Stage’s inaugural NEXT STAGE FESTIVAL, features Stephanie Crousillat, Carmen M. Herlihy, Obie Award-winner April Matthis, Taylor Schilling, and Nimene Wureh.

Get a first look at photos of the production HERE! 
 
22 years in the future, two lab assistants hatch a plan that could change the world. All they need are a few volunteers. A raucous and provocative world premiere by Kate Douglas about sacrifice, ambition, and honeybees, directed by Kate Whoriskey.

BroadwayWorld has pulled together reviews from New York City's top print and online critics and you can check out their consensus below!

Jesse Green, The New York Times: That’s the setup, if nowhere near the payoff, of the “The Apiary,” a bright, strange and mesmerizing marvel by Kate Douglas, making her professional playwriting debut with this Off Off Broadway production. Unlike most such debuts, though, “The Apiary,” which opened on Tuesday at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theater, is receiving a nearly perfect, first-class staging under the almost too good direction of Kate Whoriskey.

Sara Holdren, Vulture: Connecting the dots of what The Apiary actually wants to say might be less sticky if Whoriskey’s production felt more fluent. Instead, there’s a broad, vaguely dissonant quality to much of the show’s theatricality — as if the production keeps elbowing you in the ribs, taking you out of it every time you try to sink in. This sensation manifests in the acting—Schilling’s ranting, largely two-dimensional Gwen feels like she’s in a completely different play from Matthis and Herlihy—and in the design. Spangler’s set is bulky and expensive-looking, seemingly committed to a kind of realism, and yet that soaring netting is speckled with what look like raisins — stationary black dots that are meant to be bees. Same goes for the hive frames that Pilar lovingly removes for testing: more black dots. The delicate vestiges of life and movement that remain in these creatures are of such central importance that seeing them manifested as clearly static set dressing is disconcerting. Realism has gone as far as it can go and has hit a wall: What could have happened on the other side?

Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: There’s a reason Twilight Zones episodes were a mere half-hour, including commercials. Most of the episodes’ premises, however ingenious, couldn’t really sustain a longer running time. The new play by Kate Douglas receiving its world premiere at Second Stage Theater could have fit in nicely in Rod Serling’s classic series, thanks to its vaguely futuristic setting and blending of sci-fi and horror. Unfortunately, The Aviary, which clocks in at a relatively brief but draggy 70 minutes, lacks the substance to fuel an evening of theater, feeling simultaneously underdeveloped and overlong.

David Cote, Observer: Science fiction may be a natural fit for movies and TV, where budgets allow CGI world-building and eye-popping F/X, but the genre flourishes in humbler forms of storytelling. Caryl Churchill probed the existential horror behind cloning in A Number and Jordan Harrison walked the uncanny valley with aide-mémoire androids in Marjorie Prime. Where does The Apiary rank among futuristic stage work? In Kate Douglas’s dark farce set a persnickety 22 years from now, bee populations are shrinking (even more) due to climate change. A pair of technicians who run a synthetic apiary think they’ve found a solution. But it’s going to take a lot of human corpses. The scientific stakes are fairly high—Earth is, um, dying—but after 75 minutes of tonal wobble, you may flit from Second Stage Theatre with little to buzz about.

Allison Considine, New York Theatre Guide: The 75-minute play is quirky and dark and will leave you feeling appreciative for life and honey. Go tell it to the bees.

Average Rating: 58.0%