The Birds & The Bees
Drayton Entertainment’s newest show will have Cambridge laughing
There are many laughs — as well as a couple of bare bums — in Drayton Entertainment’s newest show “The Birds & The Bees” that opened at the Hamilton Family Theatre in Cambridge Thursday night.
The four-member cast includes:
• The always goofy and hilarious Terry Barna as neighbourhood Lothario/farmer Earl.
• Gabrielle Jones as his uptight neighbour Gail (she hasn’t had sex in 20 years).
• Her daughter Sarah played by Stacy Smith.
• Sarah’s unexpected one-nightstand, Ben, played by the absolutely adorable Thomas Duplessie.
Sarah moves back home after leaving her turkey farmer husband and she is looking for comfort and a bed at Mom’s house.
Unfortunately, Gail has cleared out the bedrooms of her daughters since they left home, donating their beds. A rather passive aggressive way of saying: Don’t move back.
Sarah, though she is 37, reverts to being a teenager again, sulking because she has to sleep on an air mattress — and how come Mom is not welcoming her with arms outstretched?
Then there is the sex talk. Gail tells Sarah she can tell her anything but of course, she is so prudish even the mention of the word makes her squeamish.
Enter the comic relief: Earl, not exactly a character you’d expect to have left such a long
line of ladies in his wake.
But that’s the thing about this play: You can never make assumptions about people.
Earl wears ratty old underwear (which we see often) and he’s usually clad in farmer’s baggy jeans and an old shirt. Not exactly James Bond. So what is it about him that makes the ladies swoon? Well, something about he knows how to make their toes curl.
Gail on the other hand is a bitter divorcee, completely rigid. She has managed to avoid his charms for two decades but after Sarah arrives and havoc ensues, she starts thinking maybe sex will loosen her up a bit. This is not a play for children.
The title sells it as a play about the birds and the bees, a.k.a. sex, which is true but there is also a second storyline.
Gail is a beekeeper who has been experiencing colony collapse, losing thousands of bees. She blames chemicals used on nearby farms, including Earl’s. The situation causes tension between neighbours and from a science perspective there are no definitive answers as to why this happening.
Ben enters the picture as a young graduate student studying Gail’s beehives for his thesis. A virgin at 22, he’s inexperienced in matters of love. Heck, the kid doesn’t even know how to drive a car.
So when Sarah decides she needs a one-night stand, and he’s it, Ben is flustered and excited. And he lies about his age, as does Sarah. Two people come together and make each other happy so does it really matter that they are 15 years apart?
The unexpected happens when Sarah tells Gail she is pregnant and when she goes into early labour, the reality of life sets in.
Ben had been banned from the farm following his liaison with Sarah but in the end, he comes back and delivers a powerful speech about the state of the environment.
Again, the mood turns serious and coming from this naive but passionate and inquisitive kid, his speech is riveting.
Directed by Drayton veteran Marti Maraden, “The Birds & The Bees” is a play that delivers laughs and food for thought.
And then there’s that life lesson about the surprises that come along when you’re busy making life plans.