The Hive: Underground Dystopia

This August, emerging theatre company The Human Zoo bring their debut production The Hive to the Pleasance in Edinburgh. Co-written by Florence O’Mahony and Nick Gilbert, the play is set in a dystopian, technology-rich universe not unlike the world dreamt up by George Orwell’s 1984 or the machine-filled domain Neo (Keanu Reeves) encounters in The Matrix Trilogy. The play unravels the story of Koto (Nick Gilbert), who tries to satisfy his curiosity about the world beyond his minute, underground cell. In his quest for truth and knowledge, he begins to doubt everything he knows and along the way meets Miri (Florence O’Mahony), another inhabitant of The Hive.

“It came about when I was working a job in an office I didn’t like, where people would email the person next to them rather than talk to them,” explains O’Mahony, artistic director of the company. The production explores not only the problems of relying on technology, but also, as in the film Equilibrium (2002), unveils what happens when a 'mindless drone' begins to think for him or herself. 

“We didn’t want to do it in a preachy way," adds O'Mahony. “We didn’t want to shout at everyone or keep saying that we shouldn't be using technology so much, because we’re the first to admit that half the play was written over email. And you know, we're all on Facebook and such. It's about our experience of the world.”

Winners of the Les Enfants Terribles award 2014, The Human Zoo are being catapulted into the Fringe frenzy for their debut, but not without some expert guidance; the award includes invaluable mentoring from Les Enfants Terribles themselves. They also offer a monetary prize (£1000), and a guaranteed slot in the Pleasance programme. Les Enfants Terribles are a company that have the experience of thirteen Edinburgh festivals behind them, and are also bringing two shows of their own to this year's festival. As Oliver Lansley, artistic director of Les Enfants Terribles, explains:

"The intention behind this award is to reward people for their artistic merit and ambition, putting the focus very much on the practical aptitude of creating theatre as opposed to the often long-winded and administrative process of finding funding."

The play seems to follow the trend of work about technology and alienation but how does an emerging company like The Human Zoo bring a technology-driven performance to the Fringe without an immense budget? After all, most of the films cited above are high-budget Hollywood blockbusters. Looking to their mentors, the solution becomes apparent.

"At one point, Nick's character has to climb a ladder and we knew that we weren't going to be able to have a ladder in the show and we needed to show that, so it made us get quite creative," O'Mahony admits. "We're all quite hands-on people. There's a lot of workshopping and playing and devising."

Aside from the support of Les Enfants Terribles and the Pleasance, the company have been lucky to have the support from charity Sophie's Silver Lining Fund, who offered them rehearsal space at Sophie's Barn during the play's development. [Eric Karoulla]