Down and out in the 21st Century

A Wasp in Winter
The Etcetera Theatre
By Hannah Crown

What is it like to be a 21st century down-and-out? This week, in the smallest theatre in London, it is your last chance to find out.
The puzzling A Wasp in Winter, the debut play from Irish writer Wayne Leonard, presents two oddly-named desperadoes bumming about a drab flat complete with mad old landlady, Mrs Lapwing, and an unidentifiable pong.
It’s a bit of a mystery story, since the characters simply appear, and then abruptly disappear, and at the end I was no closer to understanding why they were friends or how they got there in the first place.
Strutting about in braces and stumpy trousers like an urchin from Oliver twist, Burke is bemoaning her situation and frustrated literary aspirations.
Hare flits about in a ravaged ballet dress (at one point she seems to have frustrated ballet aspirations, but she finds her true calling later on).
The oddly-matched pair are cheered by the thought of Mrs Lapwing’s wine cellar, and, in Hare’s case, the chance of a free meal at church, and a job seems like an alien concept, fraught with difficulties such as finding clean clothes and not reeking of their manky flat.
Their fortunes improve though when Burke returns after a successful day’s jobhunting with a phone and a new job on a sex-line.
Hare, endearingly and brightly played by Nell Jerram, takes to this like a duck to water, although the uptight Burke has to have a few goes before she can give it her all (and by golly she does).
They were fun to watch, though Fenella Hunt, as Burke, seemed to take the whole thing rather seriously and as a result I felt gave a more contrived performance than her counterpart, who did a great job, and who seemed to be having more fun on stage.
The dialogue was sometimes a bit over the top, but watching Burke slowly take a hold of her life and squeeze it with both hands, cutting Hare’s hopes to shreds, was powerful, and reduced one member of the tiny audience to tears. That’s got to be a result.

Until June 25
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