REVIEW: The Wasp by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm at The Hen and Chickens Theatre 4-6 August 2022 /Camden Fringe

‘… keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat and working out the outcome until the very end’ ★★★★

The Wasp by Olivier Award winning playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcom premiered at Hampstead downstairs at Hampstead Theatre in 2015.  This production, presented by Bold House, is a welcome addition to the Camden Fringe Festival.

“What do you want?” is what Carla (Jennifer Thornton) asks Heather (Tegan Verheul) soon after meeting for the first time in 20 years, precipitated by Heather’s request to see her. And that central question is the puzzle that exists throughout this play.

Carla and Heather were frenemies in secondary school. Initially mates, their friendship turned sour, and they found themselves at opposite ends of a nemesis relationship. Now, two decades on, their meeting shows just how different their lives are and always were. Carla is pregnant with her fifth child, while Heather has been trying but as yet not had one. It is unclear at first why Heather is so intent on meeting Carla, her once school bully. And then Heather asks the unthinkable of Carla, and it’s not what we expect. In fact, in this show, it never is.

The Wasp searingly explores how class differences can impact children and teens and their understanding of the world, and more importantly, their long-term impact on self-regard. There are some really tender moments when discussing pregnancy, infertility, and marital relations. Yet, there exists a seething energy under the calm demeanour of the two women. Their performances are exact and wholehearted, Thornton playing her role with a certain callous nonchalance while Verheul appears guileless and earnest as Heather. With basic staging and straight-forward lighting, the focus is on the two actors, and they enthral.

While the play begins with the quintessential dramatic question of what the protagonist wants, it leaves the viewer with another question. Who is the one in the wrong: the initial perpetrator or the one who enacts revenge? This sinister story at times moves to the periphery of plausibility; yet, a surprisingly twisty and twisted tale, this all-woman production keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat and working out the outcome until the very end.

THE WASP, Presented by Bold House Productions

Written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

Performed by Jennifer Thornton, Tegan Verheul

Directed by Wendy Bollard

Stage Manager: Juliann Pichelski

Reviewed by Mariam Mathew