The Birds and the Bees
"I know how treat a woman. How to make a woman feel good. If you know what I mean. I’m talking about sex, Gail!
I got sex skills. SEX!"
About the play
A laugh-out-loud sex comedy with heart!
Tonight may be the last-ever Turkey Dance, but for these four characters, that is just the beginning...
Sarah has just left her husband and moved back in with her mom Gail, a divorcée of twenty years herself. Sarah's a turkey farmer who spends her days artificially inseminating turkeys, and Gail's a beekeeper whose honeybees keep dropping dead. Add to the mix a frisky farmer named Earl and an inexperienced entomology student named Ben and the feathers start to fly!
Set in two adjoining bedrooms on a contemporary farm, The Birds and the Bees is an uproariously funny look at sex, love, family, the environment, and yes...turkeys.
Staging Requirements
Cast: Four actors
Two Acts: 2 hours including interval
One Interior Set
Press
★★★★★
“A razor-sharp, steamy and sexually-charged new comedy…hormone-fuelled hilarity!”
- WhatsOnStage UK
“Had the audience screaming with laughter and applauding enthusiastically. Delivering both the conventionally comic and the exceptionally rare, it’s an ending that deserves its cheers.”
- Vancouver Sun
“You won’t experience a wittier, funnier, more literally laugh-out-loud show than The Birds and the Bees this year.”
- PodSask
“Often funny, sometimes heartwarming, and thoroughly charming. This may be just the type of play a lot of us need: one
things die and new things are born and that it's all a lot easier to deal with if you have some laughs along the way."
- CBC
“You will laugh heartily until your cheeks hurt!”
- The Buzz, PEI
“This well-written, taut script is filled with clever dialogue, four interesting people, and intersecting storylines that keep the audience engaged to the end. There are also a couple of scenes that are riveting, giving this show an emotional depth few other comedies can claim.”
- London Free Press
“Not to be missed! It feels like being on some kind of comedy roller coaster where every line, situation, and joke comes faster than the last.”
- Blyth Citizen
“A laugh-out-loud comedy that proves sex can be funny without being smutty.”
- Ipswich24
Production History
The Birds and the Bees premiered in 2016 at Blyth Festival Theatre.
As the most-produced Canadian plays of the past decade, it has been produced at Prairie Theatre Exchange, Arts Club Theatre Company, Globe Theatre Regina, Persephone Theatre, Western Canada Theatre, Thousand Islands Playhouse, Victoria Playhouse Petrolia, Vitcoria Playhouse PEI, Drayton Entertainment, Port Stanley Festival Theatre, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Sudbury Theatre Centre, Theatre Orangeville, Magnus Theatre, Miracle Theatre, and more.
In 2022, The Birds and the Bees had its international premiere in the UK, with additional material by James McDermott. It played at New Wolsey Theatre, Norwich Theatre, and Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, and was co-produced by John Stalker Productions.
The Birds and the Bees had its American premiere in 2023 at Whidbey Playhouse.
Gallery
The Birds and the Bees is available for licensing by professional theatres and community theatres.
To inquire about rights, please get in touch.
Photo credits on this page:
Banner photo by Terry Manzo: John Dolan and Nora McLellan at Blyth Festival. About the Play photo by Leif Norman: Tristan Carlucci and Paula Potosky at Prairie Theatre Exchange. Staging Requirments photo by Terry Manzo: Nora McLellan, Christopher Allen, and Marion Day at Blyth Festival. Press photo by Moonrider Productions: Tom McBeath and Susinn McFarlen at Arts Club Theatre Company. Production History photo by Mike Kwasniak: Laura Doddington and Richard McIver at New Wolsey Theatre. Gallery Photo 1 by Pete Paterson: Michael Pearson and Rose Napoli at Theatre Orangeville. Gallery Photo 2 by Matthew Goertz: Jessica Greenberg and Michael Man at Magnus Theatre. Gallery Photo 3 by Chris Graham: Jenna-Lee Hyde and Pamela Haig-Bartley at Globe Theatre Regina. Gallery Photo 4 by Leif Norman: Robb Paterson and Mariam Bernstein at Prairie Theatre Exchange. Gallery Photo 5 by Liisa Steinwedel: Terry Barna, Thomas Duplessie, Stacy Smith, and Gabrielle Jones at Drayton Entertainment.