It transpires I’ve reviewed this play before, but I enjoyed it less this time around. In the first half, the dialogue came across as too repetitive, going over the same scene several times, presumably to provide different perspectives (the Royal Family’s phrase “recollections may vary” comes to mind) but often with little, if any, variations worthy of note. Given the trend for ninety-minute no-interval plays these days – or even ones shorter than that – it was a surprise to come across an interval in a show that didn’t really need one, particularly as what dramatic tension was conjured up before the break was dissipated by it.
It was interesting to see the power play between two fairly dominant women. Heather (Cassandra Hercules) talks posh and has plenty of disposable income. Carla (Serin Ibrahim) does not and has not, to say the least. The long and the short of it is that when they were at school together, Carla had the upper hand, and Heather was the target and victim (and now, possibly two decades later, survivor) of school bullying. Memories of terrible school days might well ring true for many people – but if most of us get over it fairly quickly, Heather still wants her revenge over incidents that happened at secondary school.
References to, for instance, a residential trip in Year 7 and a disco in Year 9 give the supposedly grown-up dialogue a somewhat immature and naïve feel. The wasp of the show’s title is that of a spider wasp, specifically a tarantula hawk. One is preserved in a glass case in Heather’s front room, part of a collection belonging to her husband Simon (an off-stage character). How the tarantula hawk feeds on its prey is all explained, which left some actual buzzing wasp sounds that permeated proceedings both redundant and irritating – and, in hindsight, laughable.
I rather enjoyed the dark humour in the show, although some of it probably does stray these days into poor taste, even if none of it was offensive (to me, anyway). As a method of tackling unresolved teenage trauma, the narrative arc comes across as more than a tad far-fetched. The world has changed so much since the show premiered in 2015. How would someone like Heather deal with meeting Carla for the first time in many years these days? I suspect she would post a video on social media about it. Not a lot of people carry cash nowadays, yet here, there’s talk of going to the ATM and withdrawing the maximum amount permitted for the day (for reasons explained in the narrative). It felt like watching something from far longer than eleven years ago.
The second half is better than the first, even though it is longer – I was, quite frankly, pondering whether I would have left at the interval if I were in attendance as a punter. Lose the interval, tighten the first half, and get rid of that absurd buzzing noise (yes, yes, it’s called The Wasp, but one doesn’t go to see a performance of Cats and expect to hear literal meowing at various points) and this might be something more enjoyable. Still, there are some intriguing points about how actions really do have consequences in this quirky and somewhat introspective production.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Heather and Carla haven’t seen each other since school. Their lives have taken very different paths – Carla lives a hand-to-mouth existence while Heather has a high-flying career, husband and a beautiful home. And yet, here they are in a café having tea and making awkward conversation. That is until Heather presents Carla with a bag containing a significant amount of cash and an unexpected proposition…
Cassandra Hercules – Heather
Serin Ibrahim – Carla
Written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm
James Haddrell – Director
Jana Lakatos – Set and Costume Designer
Henry Slater – Lighting Designer
THE WASP
Southwark Playhouse Borough
6 to 30 May 2026
