Review: Wasps | A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Oran Mor, Glasgow 2025
Dunfermline writer Cameron Forbes makes his professional debut with Wasps as part of a play, a pie and a pint's spring season. Wasps, directed by Lesley Hart, (River City's Lou Caplan) follows 16-year old Rianne as she deals with life, loss and pesky stinging insects. Read on to find out what I thought of the latest PPP offering below.
Review: Wasps, Oran Mor, Glasgow | 18 March 2025
Wasps by Cameron Forbes | A Play, A Pie and A Pint 2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wasps is that most challenging of theatre productions: a monologue. Yolanda Mitchell stands alone on the Oran Mor stage with only a honeycomb, a few lights and a flimsy chair for company. She launches into Cameron Forbes' darkly funny drama with an opening tirade about just how awful wasps are... I agreed with every word.
For the next fifty minutes, Mitchell is Rianne, a 16 year-old girl dealing with the daily dramas of school, friends and boys, as well as a phobia of wasps. But when her mum is diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, Rianne's focus shifts and her life is turned upside down as the lives of her schoolmates carry on regardless.
Wasps is a beautifully written new play. Forbes' dialogue is authentic and funny. Yes, he is writing as a 16 year old girl, but his sharp observations come from years as a high school teacher and he has the voice of the teenager spot on.
Mitchell is excellent. She kept the audience enthralled for the entire 50 minute run time; you could've heard a pin drop in the auditorium. As the play progresses, Mitchell seamlessly switches to play a variety of other characters, and she never once missed a beat. Mitchell frequently breaks the fourth wall to talk with the audience and her eye-contact is laser sharp throughout. This is a powerful, assured performance from the recent graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
A monologue is always a difficult sell but thanks to Lesley Hart's expert direction and Yolanda Mitchell's extraordinary talent, Wasps has plenty of movement, variation and visual interest to keep an audience engaged. The set and staging for this one is pretty simple with the technical highlight being the clever use of lighting. But Mitchell is so mesmerising, she's always the main focus.
Story-wise, I'm not entirely sure I caught every correlation between the wasps and the events happening in Rianne's life; nor did I fully grasp the meaning behind every light accent or flicker. But that's completely on me. I wish there'd been a Q and A!
With Wasps, Cameron Forbes has created a play that's a beautiful mix of bittersweet humour and good deal of fascinating wasp facts. It's a lovely little piece of fringe theatre about dealing with the loss of parent without losing yourself, and it's definitely worth your time. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wasps is at Oran Mor until Saturday 22nd March 2025 and then transfers to the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.
Writer Cameron Forbes said:
“My starting point for Wasps has been the same one as for most of my plays – the loss of a mother. My mum died in a car crash when I was 19 years old and even now, over a decade later, I am still trying to wrap my head around what my grief looks like.
“This play captures the initial grieving process through Rianne, a character based on a few young people I taught as a teacher, but who shares my own phobia of wasps. I am buzzing (pun intended) to have my first professional production as part of the iconic A Play, A Pie and A Pint.”
Wasps dates
Òran Mór, Glasgow
Mon 17 - Sat 22 March, 1pm
£15 - £19.50 (inc food & drink)
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Tue 25 - Sat 29 March, 1pm
£13 (play only), £18.50 (inc food & drink)
Find Lisa in the Theatre on Instagram @lisa_inthetheatre
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