Single White Female – Theatre Royal, Glasgow

In a theatrical landscape populated with book, TV and movie adaptations, along comes Single White Female. Based on Barbet Schroeder’s 1992 film, which was in turn based on John Lutz’s 1990 novel SWF Seeks Same. Rebecca Reid’s adaptation takes the essential themes of the film but tweaks them to varying degrees of success in this new stage version. Instead of creating a 1990s-set re-make, it is firmly planted in our social media saturated world.

Allie’s faithful furry companion Buddy, arguably the most memorable event in the celluloid version, has now morphed into teenage daughter Bella. The pair have received a financial blow when Allie’s alcoholic ex has a baby on the way with the new girlfriend he’s met in rehab and the support they once had from him is drastically reduced. Allie (Lisa Faulkner) decides to advertise for a roommate to ease the burden. Along comes Hedy (Kym Marsh) and what seems at first to be a match made in heaven turns into a whole heap of horror no-one could never have imagined.

As with every successful thriller, pacing and tension is key and it is here that the entire endeavour falls flat. The story building in the first act is slow, almost plodding and punctuated by incongruous bursts of pounding music that seem to have been included in the misguided hope they’ll ramp up the unease. Ultimately their only purpose is to add to the running time, which is an economic 100 minutes. The tension creeps like a slow, barely visible fog around your ankles, never quite creating the chills the story needs.

There’s hope in the opening scenes of the second act, where the stakes are raised, however the peril is not sustained and it lapses into over-long scenes of exposition that in their sometimes-garbled delivery take away from the action.

Lisa Faulkner and Kym Marsh are well cast and do their best with the material they are given. Each a nice contrasty to the other, with Andro as Allie’s best friend and business partner Graham, providing some much-needed light relief, while Jonny McGarrity and Amy Snudden as Allie’s insufferable ex-husband and daughter, lean towards caricature in their portrayals.

While Single White Female fails to live up to its promise, ultimately, it’s an entertaining enough piece of escapist fluff.