Review: The Wasp, Southwark Playhouse

Most of us have mixed memories when we think about our school days. There are bound to be happy memories and good times with friends, but no doubt there are also some not so happy; perhaps moments of being bullied or even of being the bully. 

Heather (Cassandra Hercules) has made something of her life. She is well dressed and well spoken and has, out of the blue, asked Carla (Serin Ibrahim) to meet for a coffee and a chat, though they have not seen each other in 20 years. They were once best friends, but that didn’t last for long. The meeting is awkward and both actors play that awkwardness nicely; neither is on sure footing, and there is a convincing naturalism that suits the early tension. When Heather brings an indecent proposal, along with a bag of money, the evening takes a dark turn. Will Carla take a life-changing sum of money to murder Heather’s husband? 

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s The Wasp does have strong black humour, first mining the awkwardness as Heather and Carla meet, and then their recollections and plans for murder, which raises good laughs that roll around the audience. However, the use of repetition is often mystifying. Scenes repeat, repeatedly; music plays over the cast reset and then the characters repeat their last lines, sometimes with no difference in the delivery at all. Why? Clearly I am missing something, as this is a heavily used tool in the first act, repeated to a lesser extent in the second but still quite significant. Is it meant to suggest sliding doors or just the different ways the women view the events? The changes aren’t enough really to justify this, and the repetition doesn’t give us a different view into the same events, it’s just the same conversation by each woman.   

There are some baffling directorial choices from James Haddrell here, one of which is the inclusion of an interval which feels completely out of place and unnecessary. The play has a short running time and just before the interval there are a couple of moments where the cast rearrange the entire set to bring us to a new location. This just emphasises the stop-start nature of the evening. The play really calls for a short, sharp, taut evening, straight through with no interval, allowing the audience to absorb the atmosphere for 75 minutes.  

The staging is sparse, allowing for a focus on the two actors. There is minimal but good lighting and sound work, with the lights flickering and the sound of wasps played throughout. This is more effective as each of the women circle each other – who will sting the other? 

Hercules and Ibrahim excel at the awkwardness, and you can feel the confusion and the distance between Heather and Carla. As things become darker and the power dynamics begin to shift first slowly and then quite radically, the performances shift with them. Hercules shows Heather’s growing control and confidence, while Ibrahim’s Carla gradually loses some of her cocky self-assurance, along with what little control she thinks she has. 

The plot then does become fairly predictable, unfortunately. The revelation of past school events (I’d say bullying, but this clearly went much much further, crossing any and every line into outright assault) – steadily escalates and then, well the twists are just there waiting to be reached. It feels almost bland, as if the wasp’s sting has been removed. 

Directed by James Haddrell
Written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm
Set and Costume Design by Jana Lakatos
Lighting Design by Henry Slater
Presented by: Greenwich Theatre Productions

The Wasp plays at Southwark Playhouse until 30 May