Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Horror by way of psychological terrorism: Looking into Off-Broadway’s THE WASP and THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

• By drediman
• November 18, 2025
• No Comments

If you’re in the mood for some blood chilling theater by way of psychological terrorism, I encourage you to check out a pair of intensely intimate Off-Broadway plays, both of which have successfully translated the genre of horror to the stage. As always, read on for my thoughts.

THE WASP
Little Engine Theater
Through November 23

First up is the New York premiere of The Wasp (RECOMMENDED), Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s psychological thriller about two former classmates — one a well-to-do upper middle class woman in a childless marriage, the other a financially-strapped blue collar mother struggling to keep her growing family afloat — who reconnect under mysterious circumstances (no spoilers here!). As the two-hander insidiously unfolds, we learn more about their respective circumstances and their fraught shared history. Suffice to say, tensions mount and the balance of power shifts back and forth between them as more is revealed about their underlying motivations, culminating in an explosive final confrontation that had me glued to my seat. Tautly staged by director Rory McGregor in a nondescript loft in the Financial District of Manhattan, the extended production is representative of the kind of nimble “pop up” theater — typically presented in non-traditional spaces — that is becoming increasingly en vogue. As for the two performances by Colby Minifie and Amy Forsyth, they’re simply fantastic. Their portrayals of characters from vastly different worlds are convincing and scintillatingly juxtaposed. Minifie is gripping and brilliantly coiled as the slyly manipulative Heather, the posher of the two characters who has some serious beef to settle. As the working class Carla, Forsyth all but disappears under the skin of a blunt, worn-down woman with a past rife with abuse, both received and inflicted.

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
Bedlam / Wayward Son
Through December 21

Up at the West End Theatre on the Upper West Side, you’ll find Bedlam and Wayward Son’s co-production of The Yellow Wallpaper (RECOMMENDED), Susannah Millonzi and Caitlin Morley’s solo stage adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic 1892 short story of the same name. In essence, the piece tells the story of a woman apparently going through postpartum depression. To aid in her recovery, she is relegated to a room by her domineering husband with minimal contact with the outside world. Isolated in this prison of sorts, she slowly descends into madness as she finds herself creating elaborate conspiracy theories and analyzing the wallpaper in the room in excruciatingly obsessive detail. Although there are no supernatural elements in The Yellow Wallpaper (the same is true for the aforementioned play The Wasp), its depiction of a woman whose perception of the world gets increasingly warped is as haunting and frightening as any horror flick out there. Millonzi and Morley’s poetically piercing stage adaptation, which is told strictly from the tragic heroine’s point of view, maintains Gilman’s nuanced depiction of mental illness and the author’s ability to evoke menace. As the nameless woman in the work, Bedlam’s Millonzi grabs the audience — who are a mere inches from the actress in Morley’s extremely intimate yet stylish staging — by the collar with her visceral performance. Ever the intense actress, she fearlessly goes down the rabbit hole with the character to psychological places of extreme anxiety and dread — and takes us down with her whether we like it or not.