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…
A twisting two-hander, this electric thriller from Morgan Lloyd Malcolm (‘Emilia’) asks how far beyond the playground we carry our childhood experiences – and to what lengths some people are willing to go in order to come to terms with them.
Ahead of performances at Southwark Playhouse Borough, we sat down with director James Haddrell to learn more.
What can you tell me about The Wasp and what drew you to this piece?
I saw The Wasp when it premiered in 2015 and it left a lasting impression. I think good thrillers are relatively rare in theatre. There are the large scale, star-led adaptations of films that do the rounds, and there’s nothing wrong with seeing a film you love brought to life on stage, but there aren’t many good thrillers written specifically for the stage. The chance to direct one of the few out there is an exciting one for me.
I saw The Wasp when it premiered in 2015 and it left a lasting impression. I think good thrillers are relatively rare in theatre. There are the large scale, star-led adaptations of films that do the rounds, and there’s nothing wrong with seeing a film you love brought to life on stage, but there aren’t many good thrillers written specifically for the stage. The chance to direct one of the few out there is an exciting one for me.
How have you worked with your actors to navigate the transition from awkward reunion to high-stakes thriller?
The play does a lot of the work for us. It is built from three short acts, and in many ways while the show tells a single story the genre or style of each act is different. We move from a naturalistic set-up to a blackly comic middle-act to a dark revenge thriller in act three.
The play does a lot of the work for us. It is built from three short acts, and in many ways while the show tells a single story the genre or style of each act is different. We move from a naturalistic set-up to a blackly comic middle-act to a dark revenge thriller in act three.
The play is a tense two-hander. How are you using the intimate spaces of Southwark Playhouse Borough and Greenwich Theatre to heighten the sense of claustrophobia for the audience?
We’re certainly bringing the audience right into the action at Southwark Playhouse, where they’ll be seated on three sides of the stage. For almost all of the play it should feel like at least one of the characters doesn’t really want to be there, and putting the audience in the way heightens the sense that they’ve got nowhere to go. Greenwich is different as it’s a larger stage and a larger venue, but nevertheless, our designer Jana Lakatos and lighting designer Henry Slater have created a strange, hyper-real space in which these events will unfold. By stripping out some of the naturalism, you can create a greater sense of entrapment – this is a world where the rules are never quite what you expect, and a world in which these two women are destined to play out their story.
We’re certainly bringing the audience right into the action at Southwark Playhouse, where they’ll be seated on three sides of the stage. For almost all of the play it should feel like at least one of the characters doesn’t really want to be there, and putting the audience in the way heightens the sense that they’ve got nowhere to go. Greenwich is different as it’s a larger stage and a larger venue, but nevertheless, our designer Jana Lakatos and lighting designer Henry Slater have created a strange, hyper-real space in which these events will unfold. By stripping out some of the naturalism, you can create a greater sense of entrapment – this is a world where the rules are never quite what you expect, and a world in which these two women are destined to play out their story.
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s script balances dark humour with genuine visceral dread. What is your north star when it comes to keeping the tone consistent?
Well, that was a big question for me when I first started considering the play for our programme, but the longer I’ve spent with the text the less I think it matters. This is a play that knows it’s a play, and therefore it’s an act of artifice where there are no rules. We can switch genre along the way, more than once, we can stop, go back, consider the what-ifs, we’re allowed to play with the art of storytelling itself – and that’s what we’ve done with our production.
Well, that was a big question for me when I first started considering the play for our programme, but the longer I’ve spent with the text the less I think it matters. This is a play that knows it’s a play, and therefore it’s an act of artifice where there are no rules. We can switch genre along the way, more than once, we can stop, go back, consider the what-ifs, we’re allowed to play with the art of storytelling itself – and that’s what we’ve done with our production.
At its core, the play explores childhood trauma and the long shadow it casts. Why do you feel this story resonates so strongly in 2026?
I think the issues in the play are understood better by audiences now than they have ever been – in the case of both the bully and the bullied. That makes the play vastly more complex. It is a play that refuses to settle on notions of innocence and guilt, of heroes and villains, of right and wrong.
I think the issues in the play are understood better by audiences now than they have ever been – in the case of both the bully and the bullied. That makes the play vastly more complex. It is a play that refuses to settle on notions of innocence and guilt, of heroes and villains, of right and wrong.
Female-led revenge thrillers often subvert traditional tropes. How does your direction lean into or challenge the audience's expectations of these two women?
Most thrillers do have a hero and a villain or a victim and a perpetrator. Often we’re encouraged to love the anti-hero, we want the heist to succeed, the villain to escape, but that still emerges from an understanding of what a hero and its antithesis are. The main thing for me has been making sure both characters are allowed their own emotional truth. We often root for the character we understand the most – the one who shares our wants and needs, the one who has an emotional drive to what they do – whereas the opponent in the thriller genre has less need for any of that. There’s a hero, a task to complete, a person who stands in their way who must be circumvented or defeated, and hopefully a happy ending. The Wasp isn’t any of that.
Most thrillers do have a hero and a villain or a victim and a perpetrator. Often we’re encouraged to love the anti-hero, we want the heist to succeed, the villain to escape, but that still emerges from an understanding of what a hero and its antithesis are. The main thing for me has been making sure both characters are allowed their own emotional truth. We often root for the character we understand the most – the one who shares our wants and needs, the one who has an emotional drive to what they do – whereas the opponent in the thriller genre has less need for any of that. There’s a hero, a task to complete, a person who stands in their way who must be circumvented or defeated, and hopefully a happy ending. The Wasp isn’t any of that.
With a two-hander, the chemistry is everything. What were you looking for in your Heather and Carla to ensure they could sustain that level of intensity for 90 minutes?
I’ve been incredibly lucky on this show – I’m directing two performers who I’ve worked with before, who I’ve directed together before, and who work together in a range of capacities all the time. We’re co-producing The Wasp with CultureClash Theatre, an emerging female-led theatre company run by actors Serin Ibrahim and Cassandra Hercules, so there’s already a chemistry between the two actors. That said it isn’t always helpful. As business partners and friends, Serin and Cassandra have a shorthand to communicating, work comfortably together and understand the wider mechanics of making theatre, but creating scenes of dark, intense conflict between the two can be harder when there’s that degree of love and care between two actors. Still, I was looking for two actors who both had a huge capacity for moral uncertainty, for emotional intensity, who could credibly be believed to have had a childhood bond, and I’ve certainly found all of that.
I’ve been incredibly lucky on this show – I’m directing two performers who I’ve worked with before, who I’ve directed together before, and who work together in a range of capacities all the time. We’re co-producing The Wasp with CultureClash Theatre, an emerging female-led theatre company run by actors Serin Ibrahim and Cassandra Hercules, so there’s already a chemistry between the two actors. That said it isn’t always helpful. As business partners and friends, Serin and Cassandra have a shorthand to communicating, work comfortably together and understand the wider mechanics of making theatre, but creating scenes of dark, intense conflict between the two can be harder when there’s that degree of love and care between two actors. Still, I was looking for two actors who both had a huge capacity for moral uncertainty, for emotional intensity, who could credibly be believed to have had a childhood bond, and I’ve certainly found all of that.
As this is part of Greenwich Theatre Productions’ inaugural season, why was The Wasp the right choice to help define the identity of this new chapter?
A play like this isn’t something that Greenwich is particularly known for, at least not yet. It’s more at home at somewhere like Southwark, but that’s really the point of Greenwich Theatre Productions. We’re a theatre company, who are lucky enough to have a fantastic venue to call home in South East London but who are equally adept at making any kind of work for any kind of venue. This season we’re producing at Kings Head Theatre and the Park Theatre as well as Southwark, and we have plans to throw the net wider next year, so picking a series of plays that people wouldn’t necessarily associate with Greenwich Theatre was absolutely the point of the exercise. That said, we then begin to re-educate our home audience by showing them the breadth of what we can do when we bring the show back to Greenwich in September.
A play like this isn’t something that Greenwich is particularly known for, at least not yet. It’s more at home at somewhere like Southwark, but that’s really the point of Greenwich Theatre Productions. We’re a theatre company, who are lucky enough to have a fantastic venue to call home in South East London but who are equally adept at making any kind of work for any kind of venue. This season we’re producing at Kings Head Theatre and the Park Theatre as well as Southwark, and we have plans to throw the net wider next year, so picking a series of plays that people wouldn’t necessarily associate with Greenwich Theatre was absolutely the point of the exercise. That said, we then begin to re-educate our home audience by showing them the breadth of what we can do when we bring the show back to Greenwich in September.
How does your role as the Artistic Director of the venue influence your practical choices in the rehearsal room? Are you thinking about the "brand" of the theatre while you’re blocking scenes?
No not at all. I can’t. If there’s any brand influence as AD it’s on the choice of which plays to present. Once chosen, I just look to tell the story in the most impactful way possible – which doesn’t mean the most shocking or visceral, that can mean the most emotional, the most delicate, the most memorable for whatever reason. If there’s a brand attached to the way I direct a show it’s simply about sharing quality theatre.
No not at all. I can’t. If there’s any brand influence as AD it’s on the choice of which plays to present. Once chosen, I just look to tell the story in the most impactful way possible – which doesn’t mean the most shocking or visceral, that can mean the most emotional, the most delicate, the most memorable for whatever reason. If there’s a brand attached to the way I direct a show it’s simply about sharing quality theatre.
What was the first piece of theatre that had a big impact on you?
I guess it depends on the nature of the impact. At school I saw a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and though I don’t remember where I saw it, I remember that the actors clearly knew exactly what they were saying at every point, and as a result so did I. That helped launch a love of Shakespeare. At university I saw a puppetry production called The Seed Carriers by Stephen Mottram which was so small and delicate it taught me just how much you can achieve without words, and just how much a piece of live performance can create a sense of wonder. I saw Abi Morgan’s debut play Skinned at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton which taught me about visceral naturalism. I think thirty years later theatre continues to have a big impact on me, and no matter how many shows I see the best ones will continue to do just that.
I guess it depends on the nature of the impact. At school I saw a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and though I don’t remember where I saw it, I remember that the actors clearly knew exactly what they were saying at every point, and as a result so did I. That helped launch a love of Shakespeare. At university I saw a puppetry production called The Seed Carriers by Stephen Mottram which was so small and delicate it taught me just how much you can achieve without words, and just how much a piece of live performance can create a sense of wonder. I saw Abi Morgan’s debut play Skinned at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton which taught me about visceral naturalism. I think thirty years later theatre continues to have a big impact on me, and no matter how many shows I see the best ones will continue to do just that.
What keeps you inspired?
I think having children contributes to that. Both of my daughters (aged 6 and 3) love stories, and the older of the two comes to rehearsals with me when they coincide with school holidays (and when the play is suitable!). Seeing her reaction to the work that actors do, the creation of a living, breathing world, and the stories that can unfold in that world, is a constant reminder of just how magical live theatre can be. COVID was also a major moment for me – at that point we all had to decide whether this industry was just too precarious for us, and a lot of people made that decision, or whether it’s just too special to leave. I was lucky – I wasn’t forced into a period of quiet, I worked harder than I’d ever worked to keep Greenwich Theatre going, making online work, securing partnerships with Steven Berkoff, Dame Helen Mirren, Caryl Churchill and others, directing actors over zoom who recorded performances in their homes – but nevertheless the return to live performance felt like a homecoming and made it clear to me that I’ll be doing this for as long as I’m able.
I think having children contributes to that. Both of my daughters (aged 6 and 3) love stories, and the older of the two comes to rehearsals with me when they coincide with school holidays (and when the play is suitable!). Seeing her reaction to the work that actors do, the creation of a living, breathing world, and the stories that can unfold in that world, is a constant reminder of just how magical live theatre can be. COVID was also a major moment for me – at that point we all had to decide whether this industry was just too precarious for us, and a lot of people made that decision, or whether it’s just too special to leave. I was lucky – I wasn’t forced into a period of quiet, I worked harder than I’d ever worked to keep Greenwich Theatre going, making online work, securing partnerships with Steven Berkoff, Dame Helen Mirren, Caryl Churchill and others, directing actors over zoom who recorded performances in their homes – but nevertheless the return to live performance felt like a homecoming and made it clear to me that I’ll be doing this for as long as I’m able.
What would you hope someone takes away from seeing The Wasp?
I hope that people will be unsettled, but that they’ll love that feeling. They won’t feel catharsis, the story will have got under their skin – why did it pan out that way, could it have gone another way, who was in the right or the wrong, what would you have done? There are shows where your conversation on the train home is about whether to eat or not when you get in or what you need to achieve at work the next day, and there are shows where you can’t help but go over and over what you’ve just seen. I desperately hope, and I absolutely believe, that The Wasp is an example of the latter.
I hope that people will be unsettled, but that they’ll love that feeling. They won’t feel catharsis, the story will have got under their skin – why did it pan out that way, could it have gone another way, who was in the right or the wrong, what would you have done? There are shows where your conversation on the train home is about whether to eat or not when you get in or what you need to achieve at work the next day, and there are shows where you can’t help but go over and over what you’ve just seen. I desperately hope, and I absolutely believe, that The Wasp is an example of the latter.
The Wasp runs at Southwark Playhouse Borough (The Little) from 6th - 30th May 2026. For tickets visit https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/the-wasp/
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