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<i>Queen Bee Escort</i> (Macpherson, 2013) was the first iteration of <i>The Bees</i> project, created as part of the research for an MA in Making Theatre (EHU). The performance was commissioned for the British Summertime Festival, which was funded by Barclays Bank. It involved two performers in full protective beekeeping suits carrying a small beehive that emitted a loud buzzing sound and a sign reading “Queen Bee Escort” while walking through a busy music festival in Hyde Park. The performers spoke softly, moved slowly and carefully, and treated the hive with extreme caution, intentionally creating the illusion, or at least the suspicion, that the hive contained real insects.For audience members who chose to look into the hive through a small viewing hole, the interior revealed a model bee wearing a crown and sitting on a throne beneath a chandelier.The performance was designed to investigate the juxtaposition of such an incongruous image within the relaxed and noisy environment of a music festival.The research questions posed were:<b>Where does the liminal edge lie?</b><br>Do audiences accept the performance, and the apparent presence of a stinging insect, as real? Do they suspend disbelief in order to enter into the game, or do they simply interpret it as a performance with themselves positioned as audience? At what point in an interaction is the liminal threshold crossed and the form of interaction changed?<b>Does the funding of cultural production compromise artistic integrity?</b><br>The title of my MA dissertation was <i>Can Art Survive Subsidy?</i> This performance tested a particular commercial funding structure. In this case, the subsidy came from Barclays Bank. However, the marketing company that commissioned the performance specified that any messaging should remain subliminal rather than explicit. While they retained a veto over which performances were commissioned, they did not participate in the creative process. The only element under their direct control was the specific colour of the text used in the signage, which matched the colour used in the Barclays logo.<b>What effect does the individual experience of the performance have on the communal experience of the festival?</b><br>The work explored how moments of individual encounter can produce a release of tension and contribute to shared identity formation within temporary social groupings. These dynamics resonate with concepts such as communitas and the formation of short-lived festival ‘tribes’. The nature of this collective experience changes in relation to other activities within the festival environment, for example when audiences shift from participatory interaction to spectatorship while watching a band, or when the work becomes integrated into the social routines of friendship groups.To request accessible descriptions of the images, please contact the Research Data Manager (rdm@edgehill.ac.uk).