←Recommendations of Honey Bee Baby

This is a piece that just gets more relevant with each passing year. With an Octavia Butler-like prescience, Erlina has crafted a terrifying and believable world that builds to one of the most terrifying climaxes I've read in a very long time. I really hope I can see this one on stage.

Honey Bee Baby reveals a possible pending future if we continue to overlook the damaging effects of climate change. Set in a dystopian future where overpopulation has destroyed the Earth, citizens are forced to relinquish their rights under the pretense that it will help to recover the environment. This world tries to enforce perfection and eliminate human error. Only government-approved children are born and those who are not are quickly destroyed. Ortiz highlights what happens if we as a society play into the ideas of conformity, and shows the importance of the right to choose.

This play is eerily relevant and I could not put it down as it immediately drew me in for the wild ride until the end. The scary thing about this play is that it COULD happen and it IS starting to happen. What a visionary! Let's hope that reading this play will leave us more prepared to not give away our rights to quickly in the name of "safety." Thank you for your work!

Honey Bee Baby is an eerie futuristic play of personal rights versus government control and propaganda. The characters portrayed in the story are real and can’t (sorry — can not) quite fit into a world that tries to wipe out kindness and humanity. Clever and haunting.

I have read many plays that take a look at the effects of climate change but none in this way. I really don't think I've read a play that takes such an interesting look at over population. Ortiz proves to be masterful in world building without giving too much exposition. This play shows a world that feels fantastical and meant for science fiction but not too unbelievable. At its core, though, its the characters that drive this play and how they cope and dream for more in the dystopian future they have inherited.

This near-future examination of our world is truly chilling. Ortiz builds a world so intricate and stunning! HONEY BEE BABY asks questions about reproductive rights in a hyper-political future, while raising awareness about our dwindling natural resources. Ortiz uses humor and magic in order to raise a mirror up to the audience.