Optic Nerve uses the most common form of performance poetry which videos over famous poets. The video performance over Sylvia Plath’s “The arrival of the bee box” takes the poem line by line but adds a story with a background and props to further help the audience understand the meaning behind the poem. It takes both oral and visual to understand how the words could be emphasized or putting clear imagery that makes the audience focus not only on the words but the scene that is being acted. The woman in the video speaks at a rapid rate, almost imitating the bees in the box. It gives more of an impact on Sylvia’s mind and her choice of letting the bees free. The actress moves around the box and listens to the box of bees as she recites the poem which further shows that indecisiveness in the poem. I think this is very effective and gives poems that have been written in the 19th century and brings them back into relevance by adding modern technology to re-engage the audience. The bees are always shown trapped in the box which by the end the actress explains that she will let them go tomorrow and continues to show the bees trapped. This gives the audience the feeling that this might go unresolved. Sylvia Plath uses the bees as her thoughts and feelings and the box trapping and confining those feelings which Optic Nerve shows through the way the actress uses her words and interacts with the box.
