The Hive Caravan Theatre

The Hive 23'

The energy is anticipatory while line to the Beehain, the notorious Techno-Club for Bee-Identifying creatures, keeps expanding. The bouncer, and freshly crowned queen bee “Royal-bee-atch” is in charge of entry. Access is granted via Potato-Putin stamp.

The Berlin based Techno duo Hans&Gretchen are booked to perform their notorious “10-min rave”. Once the beats hit the floor, the bodies start to bounce. “Hans and Gretchen” give their all and just when the energy is reaching a climax, “Wannabee” is invited to turn up the funk — the music takes a 180° switch, the light turns back on and the experience dances to an end. Hugs, laughter and a collective sushi making unfolds.

The Beehain, a pun headed towards the notorious Berghain club in Berlin, was the exit dance experience of the Community Theatre format “The Hive” that took place at David Farm on the 21 & 22 of April 2022. It was an improvised roleplay journey that brought together a group of Israelis, Palestinians and Volunteers from around the world to connect through play.

We lived out a story of a new Queen Bee election for the Hive to explore themes of belonging, power and responsibility.

In play, there is no agenda. It has an unique potential to create bridges and bring people together. We play as kids, and modern life makes us grow up and loose this childlike wonder. We want to invite us all to play again, freely, without judgement or expectations, to reawaken our inner child.

About “The Caravan Community Theatre”

"A Community Theatre experience prioritizes bringing people together from various walks of life, to connect and use theatre and play to build and understand our relationship to ourselves and the communities we are part of.”

This is NOT a performance piece: it IS an interactive theatre format that actively engages all participants to create the story and their characters together.

You DO NOT need to have theatre experience!! At the core, we want to make story and play accessible to everyone, regardless of experience or circumstance. We borrow elements of Improvisational Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, Clowning, LARPing and more to create and play together. Its fun and educational!

Play as you are!

Everyone is encouraged to play however they feel NOW and change anytime. If you are angry and want to release, play an angry persona. If you are sad and want to embrace this emotion, use the sadness to inspire how you play. And if you want to relax, then your persona will be all about chillin the f*ck out. There is no right or wrong — think along the lines of play-inspired emotional release.

Building worlds together

This is a collective act — all participants commit to the story and create the art, theatre, food and other elements together. The more you give to the experience — the more the experience will give to you.

About the hosts

We were joyful to use the incredible David Farm to host the theatre experience. It is a space that many participants are familiar with, and feel at home.

It is also a mixture of revolutionary spirits, DIY builders and eco-artists, with 20+ cats, 2 1/2 dogs, volunteers, a food garden and loads of tables and materials to work with. Check them out!

About the Experience

The inspiration for the experience came from a Berlin based community called “The Beehive”. Every Solstice we gather for a community meeting to crown a new „queen bee“. This archetype role can be played however the chosen one pleases, and still gives an invitation to explore power and share responsability for personal and communal development.

For this proof of possibility we wanted to create an experience that helps participants step out of the conflict / dialogal process of meeting each other and use play as a regenerative source of culture, traditions and connections.

The experience day started with a symbolic bullshit-ceremony, during which all particpants and hosts were invited to “let go” of emotional baggage that might hold them during the experience.

During a following character & story workshop, participants were guided to work with their current emotional state, and use that to inspire their bee-persona.

We explored our characters purpose, how they move, feel and interact and invited everyone to create their own improvised backstory. We also created a “shared language” finding ways of greeting, thanking and expressing appreciations and boundaries in our own unique Hive way.

After a break we got into costumes and entered the experience.

The Hive theatre journey opened with a ceremony during which the retirement of the current queen bee was announced, and the urgency and need to select a successor stated.

This was to be determined by two group competitions and a ritual feast ceremony. The focus was not on creating competition, but rather sparking interaction and giving the participants a frame to follow. A lot of the story evolution was improvised and based on what the participants gave into the experience. (The more you give to the experience, the more it gives to you)

The experience and day became increasingly more bizarre. The climax was reached during the celebratory ritual dinner, for which we put up a gala table and invited the local cats (our Gods in the story), to eat from the table and pick the last nominee …