This is a horror show – but subtle. You know from the opening lines that you aren’t going to trust the lodger Hedy. You wouldn’t trust that woman to make a cup of tea. But wow, she is clever. She finds the fissures in all the other characters’ relationships and takes a hammer and chisel to them till she has cracked them asunder.
This is a bravura performance by Kym Marsh as Hedy the flat-sharer from Hell. She is snake-like – she is a female Iago. The havoc she wreaks is of Shakespearian proportions. She is on everyone’s side. She is everyone’s friend. Until she isn’t.
Wittily adapted by Rebecca Reid and based on the 1992 film, Single White Female is the story of a single mum with a teenage daughter who advertises for someone to share her flat and help pay the bills.
The opening scene has plenty of great lines and laughs but then the drama becomes more and more sinister. We didn’t have social media in 1992. But we do now so when Horrid Hedy wants to impersonate Allie and poison her relationships, it’s SO much easier.
At first Allie, played adroitly by Lisa Faulkner, thinks she has found the perfect companion: helpful, confiding, supportive. But behind Allie’s back -when Allie is away working, Hedy encourages Allie’s 15-year-old daughter, Bella to bunk off school, to go to a party she has promised her mother she will not go to.
Excellent performance by Amy Snudden as young Bella, capturing at different times, teenage angst, anger and delight.
Twisted Hedi makes trouble for Allie between Allie and her daughter Bella, between Allie and her ex-husband Sam, Bella’s father, and between Allie and her work colleague, Graham.
Strong performances here from John McGarrity as Sam and Andro as Graham. Hedy is pure poison. Good as anything in Jacobean drama.
No one is going to trust anyone by the end of this play. Directed by Gordon Greenberg, with some alarming effects of light and sound, (Jason Taylor and Max Pappenheim) this is a fast-paced show.
It’s edge of seat stuff. The audience held its breath. With a comfortable modern set by designer Morgan Large it feels terrifyingly real. A great night at the theatre.
Single White Female is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday, March 14.
It is then touring taking in Peterborough New Theatre April 7-11 and Milton Keynes Theatre from April 21 to 25. Cambridge Arts Theatre tickets from 01223 503333 or www.artstheatre.co.uk Age guidance 15+ Also see:
