The Wasp | Southwark Playhouse

At first glance, it is difficult to tell why Heather (Cassandra Hercules) and Carla (Serin Ibrahim) would ever have been friends. Life has certainly taken them in different directions since school, with Heather smartly dressed and reeking of wealth, life apparently having dealt her a very favourable hand. 

Carla, chain smoking and sharp tongued, has done less well for herself, but she does have one thing that Heather has so far been unable to obtain: a child. In fact, she is shortly due to give birth to her fifth.

As the two one-time school friends meet for coffee in the opening of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s The Wasp, Heather’s polished facade quickly begins to unravel and the pair are drawn into a shocking downward spiral, with secrets from both past and present revealed.

Lloyd Malcolm’s cutting two hander pulls no punches, delivering twist after shocking twist as the plot winds to its violent conclusion. The action largely takes place in Heather’s living room, in which Jana Lakatos’ set design comes into its own in its highlighted backdrop of framed insects, including the thematic tarantula hawk wasp.

Unfortunately, The Wasp does suffer somewhat in the execution. James Haddrell’s direction is excellent in his movement of the actors around the stage, helping to combat some of the issues of sight lines in Southwark Playhouse Borough’s Little theatre’s thrust setting, but some errors in pacing undermine the tension of the piece. 

With the action running at a little over an hour and a half in total, the inclusion of an interval at the thirty-five minute mark pulls the audience out of the drama at a crucial moment. The choice to ‘rewind’ and repeat key parts of the dialogue with different intonation or acting choices also serves to stall the action rather than advancing it, and some of the set changes are overly long too.

This is a shame, as at the heart of The Wasp is a story that both shocks and intrigues, told by two performers adept at tapping into the psychological horror of the piece.

Ibrahim, as Carla, initially seems the stronger performer, her sardonic responses to Heather’s attempts to draw her back into the past the perfect foil to Heather’s stuffy attempts at refinement. But Hercules comes into her own in the second half, as Heather continues to unravel and greater and greater darkness is revealed.

The Wasp runs at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 30th May, followed by a run at Greenwich Theatre between 4th - 12th September. For more information and tickets, follow the link here.

★★★☆☆ (3*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Ross Kernahan