Single White Female

Kym Marsh and Lisa Faulkner in Single White Female. Image, uncredited

****

A current trend in commercial theatre is the reimagined thriller. Screen to stage adaptations of much loved murder mysteries designed to excite and capitalise on an already successful story, often featuring a celebrity or two. Most are moderately enjoyable. The best, though, offer a cracking night’s entertainment. Like Single White Female. Rebecca Reid's mostly tight adaptation taking the psychological tension of the 1992 movie and giving it a contemporary make over.

Lisa Faulkner and Andro in Single White Female. Image, uncredited

Rightly unfaithful to the original plot, Reid’s adaptation is more a series Easter eggs referencing the original. The mysterious flatmate, the subtle manipulations, those stilettos that could take an eye out all remain. Yet its tale of two women navigating a cruel male universe is jettisoned for a social media, on-line bullying, Tinder aware retelling. Framed around a mother and daughter relationship. Lisa Faulkner's long suffering, vanilla good girl Allie, estranged from her daughter, her life, and her ex, is trying to make ends meet following a divorce. Her ex, John McGarrity’s Sam, like her rebellious daughter, Amy Snudden’s insufferable Bella, both finding Allie hard going. Allie so obsessed with doing right, and getting her business off the ground she fails to see what’s right in front of her. Like a magisterial Kym Marsh as mistress of manipulation, Hedy. Allie’s live-in lodger who keeps her friends close, her enemies closer, and her secrets closest of all. Only Allie’s best friend, Graham, a superb Andro, senses the impending and inevitable danger which plays out towards its spectacular and violent end.

Amy Snudden and Lisa Faulkner in Single White Female. Image, uncredited

Under Gordon Greenberg's snappy direction, Single White Female cracks along at pace. Subtle foreshadowing, like a superb opening image, sets up a rollercoaster of unravelling intrigue. Ensuring Single White Female, despite being dialogue driven and always set in the same location, proves hugely engaging. Indeed, resisting jumping from one scene to another lends significant depth, except when the script rushes in places. Morgan Large’s design, a series of receding rectangles, helping focus the attention. Jason Taylor's flashing lights, and Max Pappenheim’s explosive sounds unashamed of the jolting, gimmicky shock, each used to terrific effect. Mostly, it's five strong performances that captivate, with Marsh being simply marvellous. As is the young Amy Snudden, hugely impressive as a petulant 15 year-old on ingenue. Single White Female not just relying on gimmicks, or a familiar plot to supply tension, but on developing emotionally complex characters in a smartly reimagined retelling.

Kym Marsh and Lisa Faulkner in Single White Female. Image, uncredited

From its blood stained opening, through its final surprise ending, Single White Female takes the nail biting tension of the orignal and catapults it into the 21st century. Doing so with style and verve. A cracking story, with a cracking cast, Single White Female achieves what many trending rewrites aspire to but fall short of; a reimagined classic vibrant and vital in its own right.

Single White Female, adapted for the stage by Rebecca Reid, presented by JAS Theatricals, ATG Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, and JASS Productions, runs at The Gaiety Theatre till April 4.

For more information visit The Gaiety Theatre