A contemporary gothic ghost story with a psychological twist
When Ruth, a psychiatric nurse, takes a job as a live-in carer in an isolated Northumberland house with her patient, Angel, and an elderly housekeeper, Eusapia, she is looking forward to an easy ride after her former employment in a busy hospital. Soon though, the women are threatened by a figure lurking outside. Is it a figment of a hysterical woman’s imagination? An intruder? Or could it be the previous master of the house? Locked indoors together, the three women become increasingly suspicious of each other. Someone is not who she says she is.
The women have created an eccentric world for themselves inside the house, with disturbing references to the outside world only occasionally seeping in. This provides the backdrop for the play’s quirky sense of humour with imaginative physical performances from actresses Rachel Donovan, Joanna Holden and Karen Traynor.
In writing the play, Margaret Wilkinson was inspired by the psychological depth of classic ghost stories such as Henry James’s novella Turn of the Screw and its film adaptation, The Innocents. Queen Bee is a ghost story for the stage, it is also a psychological exploration of personalities under pressure.
Who is to be trusted and who is to be feared? All the doors have been bolted against the unknown, but inside the struggle goes on. Who will be Queen Bee?
