SIngle White Female

Single White Female
Alhambra Theatre Bradford

Based on the hit film of the 90s, Single White Female has been modernised and is now a brand new play. It stars two actresses who started their careers in soaps more than a decade ago: Kym Marsh and Lisa Faulkner (Coronation Street and Brookside) as Hedy and Allie, alongside Andro Cowperthwaite as Graham, Jonny McGarrity as Sam and Amy Snudden as Bella. Tonight in Bradford, Allie is played by understudy Anna Ruben.

The play opens in a modern apartment seemingly on a high floor, as a noisy elevator with faulty lighting is referenced throughout. Mother and daughter divorcee Allie and Bella live alone in the apartment but are often joined by Graham, the loud gay guy from across the hall. He gets some funny lines and seems a likeable character.

When Allie decides she needs a flatmate, there is no more searching the newspaper ads like the original film, now it’s “on the app”. We are introduced to Hedy, a brunette casually dressed photographer with her own history of trauma in losing a baby to cot death. She soon settles in, gaining the trust of Allie and, in particular, daughter Bella, buying her shoes, helping her with the faulty apartment electrics or teaching her photography, leading to an incident at school with an AI image. The two become dangerously close.

Young Amy Snudden plays the sulky teenager so well, spending a lot of time in her room on social media. It’s when Allie’s ex Sam enters the narrative that things take a dark turn and the creeping menace, played so brilliantly by Kym Marsh, starts to emerge.

Allie’s trusting innocence is portrayed well by understudy Anna Ruben tonight, showing no signs that she isn’t the main lead. The stressed mother trying to juggle a full-time job is grateful of Hedy’s help, ignoring her odd behaviour and warning signs, afraid of more false accusations.

Things begin to go south when Hedy tries to seduce Sam by first dressing like his ex-wife, complete with new blonde hairstyle and figure-hugging dress, and then drugging his wine. Sam resisting her ultimately results in him getting a stiletto heel in his brain. The final act sees all hell break loose as Sam’s murder, as is typical in these types of stories, ramps up the tension as Hedy goes over the edge, quite literally when you see the play.

A final reveal that maybe Bella was following in Hedy’s footsteps wasn’t clear enough to the audience, I felt, when the play ended.

Themes of loneliness and obsession, plus warnings of the dangers of social media and mobile phone technology, seemed to be the underlying theme to the play, but maybe a warning about high heels should be included too?!

John Mather ★★★ ★