Wasp

By Rhiannon Collett

In a town ruled by a shadowy cult, outliers Wasp and Janey nurture a dwindling community of queer resistance. Faced with social isolation and medical barriers, they remain determined to make things work and defend their home. Meanwhile, the Prophet’s daughters grapple with their own sense of home. True-believer Caroline anticipates a lavish future in the cult, but Rachel pushes back at its narrow-minded structures. When birth control is banned and Wasp’s ex-boyfriend Isaac turns up with a suspiciously generous offer, all of their lives are thrown into disarray. Suddenly the clock is ticking, and the cult is closing in. Who can they trust? And who’s in on the game? An electrifying exploration of body autonomy and reproductive rights, Wasp will leave you ready to fight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Dec 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9780369103017

Rhiannon Collett

Rhiannon Collett (they/them) is a playwright, performer, and translator based in Vancouver on the territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. They are interested in interdisciplinary creation processes, sexual labour, gender performativity, and science fiction. Selected playwriting credits include Miranda & Dave Begin Again (Playwrights Guild of Canada RBC Emerging Playwright Award), Wasp (Nightswimming/safeword), The Kissing Game (Youtheatre/Young People’s Theatre), J’ai Jamais (French translation by Pénélope Bourque, Youtheatre/Télé-Québec/Maison Théâtre) and Girlfriend (Young People’s Theatre).

Book preview

Cover: Wasp by Rhiannon Collett. In purple and blue tones, two figures grapple with their surroundings, emerging from a kaleidoscopic stained-glass window that is distorting around them.

Wasp

a play by

Rhiannon Collet

Playwrights Canada Press

Toronto

Copyright

Wasp © Copyright 2022 by Rhiannon Collett

First edition: November 2022

Printed and bound in Canada by Rapido Books, Montreal

Cover art by Kira Buro

Author photo by Phimo Photo

Playwrights Canada Press

202-269 Richmond St. W., Toronto,

ON M5V 1X1

416.703.0013 | [e-mail] | www.playwrightscanada.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca.

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact:

Colin Rivers at Marquis Entertainment

402–10 Adelaide St. East, Toronto,

ON M5C 1J3

416-960-9123 x 223 | [e-mail]

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Wasp / a play by Rhiannon Collett.

Names: Collett, Rhiannon, author.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220446113 | Canadiana (ebook) 2022044613

X

|

ISBN

9780369102997 (softcover) |

ISBN

9780369103017 (

EPUB

)

|

ISBN

9780369103000 (

PDF

)

Classification:

LCC PS

8605.

O

4555

W

37 2022 |

DDC C

812/.6—dc23

Playwrights Canada Press operates on land which is the ancestral home of the Anishinaabe Nations (Ojibwe / Chippewa, Odawa, Potawatomi, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Nipissing, and Mississauga), the Wendat, and the members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora), as well as Metis and Inuit peoples. It always was and always will be Indigenous land.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (

OAC

), Ontario Creates, and the Government of Canada for our publishing activities.

Logo: Canada Council for the Arts.Logo: Government of Canada.Logo: Ontario Creates.Logo: Ontario Arts Council.

Dedication

For Jess

Production History

Wasp was commissioned and developed with the support of Nightswimming. Further support was provided by the Toronto Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Rhubarb Festival (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), the Stratford Festival Laboratory, lemonTree creations, and safeword. A twenty-five-minute excerpt of the piece was presented at the 2019 Rhubarb Festival (Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto), featuring Heath V. Salazar as Wasp, Gabe Maharjan as Janey, Robin Luckwaldt as Caroline, and Cole Alvis as Isaac, directed/written/produced by Rhiannon Collett, sound design by James Knott, and dramaturgy by Brian Quirt.

The play was developed as an audio drama in 2022, co-produced by safeword and Harlot X, in affiliation with Nightswimming, featuring Robin Luckwaldt as Wasp, Cole Alvis as Janey, Brefny Caribou as Rachel, Jillian Harris as Caroline, and Heath V. Salazar as Isaac. It was co-directed by Rhiannon Collett and Gabe Maharjan, produced by Brandon Crone and Rhiannon Collett, with production dramaturgy by Gabe Maharjan and Brian Quirt, sound design and audio production by Ren Bangert, and stage management by Katherine Belyea.

Glossary

The Church of the Angel Redeemers: A.k.a., the Cult. A fundamentalist group that hopes to expand and homogenize the town’s population through Angelic intervention.

The Angels: A swarm of yellowjackets that impregnate uterus-havers with rapid twelve-hour pregnancies.

Divine Birthday: The day that a virgin and a man join together to offer their bodies to the Angels through a special ritual at the Altar.

The Altar: The cult building where all rituals take place.

Holy Mother: A virgin in the cult who chooses (or is told) to give her reproductive power to the Angels.

Seraphim: Men in the cult who choose (or are told) to give their reproductive power to the angels.

Coca-Cola: A last-ditch attempt at abortion access.

Characters

Wasp (they/them): Non-binary person, mid-twenties. Janey’s boyfriend, Isaac’s ex-girlfriend.

Janey (she/her): Transgender woman, early in transition. Mid-twenties. Wasp’s girlfriend.

Rachel (she/her): Cisgender woman. Early twenties. Lesbian. Caroline’s sister. Younger daughter of the Prophet.

Caroline (she/her): Cisgender woman. Mid-twenties. Isaac’s girlfriend, Rachel’s sister. Older daughter of the Prophet.

Isaac (he/him):