The Secret Life of Bees 
Almeida Theatre, London
 

ANYTHING involving the Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage is worth a watch, and this emotionally rewarding musical, now in Britain after premiering off-Broadway in 2019, certainly doesn’t disappoint. 

Here Nottage provides a rock-solid book based on Sue Monk Kidd’s bestselling tale of two teenage girls in mid-1960s Deep South America — one black, one white — fleeing from home to find sanctuary at a bee farm run by a small coterie of self-sufficient black women.  

Nothing quite reaches the heights of Nottage’s most recent hit play, Sweat, but that would be hard in any case — and this is a different beast altogether, even if it does tackle some of the same social and racial issues. 

Its power lies not in any one facet but in the whole synthesis. Nottage’s words, Duncan Sheik’s gently powerful music and Soutra Gilmour’s atmospheric set are impressive, but the most affecting aspect of the production is its overarching and all-enveloping feel.  

With candles to the foreground, fireflies in the distance and bees humming in our ears, a soothing balm is applied to the senses, just as it is to the agitations of the two teenage runaways.  

Despite the sometimes violent drama at the heart of the story, it is this tender, cathartic quality that quietly wins the day as peace, love and understanding triumphs over unthinking chauvinism. 

The small cast rarely overpeoples the big stage, so that we get to know and see all the characters intimately, even those who have walk-on parts.  

Eleanor Worthington-Cox as Lily and Abiona Omonua as Rosaleen, the two absconders, give great emotional depth to their characters as they share centre stage.

But there are also top-notch performances from Rachel John as August, the spirited queen bee of the commune, Ava Brennan as her combative sister, June, and Tarinn Callender as Neil, a sympathetic helping hand whose joyous song of proposal to June is one of the musical highlights. 

The collective achievement of such a strong ensemble is to portray, as one character says, “all the good and bad mixed together” — not to mention the joy and pain to be had from fighting back in difficult circumstances. 

Although there’s not quite enough dramatic tension in the first half and the music would benefit from a more cohesive stylistic theme, The Secret Life of Bees, like the characters at its heart, proves to be both spirited and inspiring. 

 Runs until May 27. Box office: (020) 7359-4404, almeida.co.uk.