Beyond The Veil at Grimesthorpe

At 1pm on Saturday 1st June the Mikron Theatre come up to Grimesthorpe allotments to perform Beyond The Veil.

The show has been desscribed as “CSI meets Camberwick Green in a tale of sleuths and bees in this crime thriller with a buzz”. Beyond the Veil is a gentle comedy with larger-than-life characters, live music and fascinating and fun facts about bees, beekeeping and all things apicultural.

It tells the story of the gardeners of Thistledale Allotments. After a year of shenanigans with the council, their allotments are safe, but the fragile peace in this idyllic setting is about to be shattered. A body is discovered and foul play is suspected. Detective Starkey has plenty of suspects but just can’t find a motive. The allotmenteers give him beekeeper April’s advice; “talk to the bees”, but will understanding the bees and can their ways really lead him to the clues he needs…?

Mikron Theatre company are the only company in the world to tour professional theatre by narrowboat, bringing performances to places that don’t often see theatre; pubs, village greens, canal basins, and this year, to allotments and apiaries.

Marianne McNamara, Mikron’s artistic director explains why she was drawn to this subject:

“Deborah McAndrew wrote our 2012 show “Losing the Plot” and set the show on Thistledale Allotments. She wrote such a fabulous script with such colourful characters and one of them, April, is a bee keeper. We got a glimpse into the art of beekeeping and I just wanted to develop that, I wanted to know more! Deborah is a beekeeper herself, so it seemed like a natural choice. Of course, bees are in the news at the moment, as they risk becoming an endangered species, so I am hoping that the show will fire some people’s enthusiasm and help people to understand what vital little creatures they are!”