By Kim Zhou
Directed by John Horzen
Yale Cabaret
2024
Set Designer: Patti Panyakaew
Costume Designer: Caroline Tyson
Lighting Designer: Ankit Pandey
Sound Designer: Joe Krempetz
Projection Designers: Ke Xu
Dramaturg: Sophia Carey
Technical Directors: Luanne Jubsee & Tom Minucci
Stage Manager & Producer: Hope Ding
"What's so scary about not being able to fall asleep?
In the words of Kim Zhou, "the curtain never falls" for these characters--not in this contemporary constellation of cities that never sleep. Our urban habitats are defined by "progress," philosopher Bauman writes, yet "instead of great expectations and sweet dreams, 'progress' evokes insomnia full of nightmares of 'being left behind,' of missing the train or falling out of the window from the fast-accelerating vehicle.
Sleep isolates. However we spend our waking hours, when we dream we dream alone. Yet as we seek sleep different characters emerge--the part of us that wants to sleep and the part that's keeping it at bay; the day and the night versions of ourselves; the grown-up self and the inner child.
And where there's conflict and characters, there's soon to be a story. Bedtime stories combat the night's power to isolate. They help children transition through the stages of the day. They send us to sleep by awakening our imaginations. And the Beetle Hums is this kind of story, one that can bring us briefly together before we go our separate ways into the land of dreams."
-- Sophia Carey
The Cabaret space is always a black box. In order to do this play justice, turning this black box into a white box not only makes it incredibly bright but the feeling of familiarity yet different is just what we needed. The play is set in a boat where the four characters couldn't escape nor reach anywhere. They are trapped in this limbo. White, bright and empty might be the key to finally being able to sleep.
Video by John Horzen
Design sketches
