Horrible Hedy hits the heights of horror

REVIEW: Single White Female – Malvern Theatres (Tuesday, June 9 to Saturday, June 13). Wednesday and Saturday matinees 2.30pm.

Showtime! stars rating: * * * * *

THE heart invariably sinks when it transpires that a classic yarn has been ‘re-imagined’ but in this case Rebecca Reid’s adaptation most surely is a master stroke of plot tweaking.

Out goes Buddy the fluffy-wuffy labrador pup in the movie and in comes Amy Snudden as Bella, the irrepressibly snotty, squawking teenager from Hell.

So - during the first half, as I watch with a growing, sickly sense of personal flashback, I’m thinking to myself… is this door-slamming spoiled brat going to be the extent of the awfulness?

Er, no. And not by a red-soled stiletto heel’s length, either. For when horror harridan Hedy strides on to the stage dressed in black, and looking like one of those stag beetles we’ve been watching on this week’s Springwatch, you know that something will very soon be colliding with the fan.

Oh yes indeed. And to be sure, Kym Marsh as horrible Hedy is truly, frighteningly fabulous, gradually undergoing the sinister metamorphosis of changing from doe-eyed-dormouse-in-need to a snake in the grass oozing more venom than a viper with chronic fang ache.

And yet it all starts in such a straightforward, everyday way. Allie’s advert for a flatmate is answered, and Hedy duly arrives with her permanent butter-wouldn’t-melt smile.

However, trouble soon starts when the cuckoo in the nest makes a move on Allie’s estranged husband Sam (Jonny McGarrity) and the die – in more ways than one – is cast.

Allie, played with a growing apprehension and sense of doubt by Lisa Faulkner, takes quite some time to realise that several heads are now being messed with, although business partner Graham (Andro) is probably the first one to suss that something is going badly wrong.

Hedy is clearly a damaged person, but even in this age of victim culture it’s difficult to empathise, especially in the final stages when the action really hots up, and Ms Marsh turns up the volume button on the violence to max and then some.

With sound designer Max Pappenheil’s nervy musical effects adding to the tension, and Gordon Greenberg’s direction driving this taut tale along at a rattling rate of knots, Single White Female is probably not for those of a delicate disposition.

Yup. It's unsettling stuff from start to finish - and is therefore warmly recommended.