Fatal Attraction is one of those films that gets right under your skin – its dirty, uncomfortable and corrosive. The fear with the stage play was that it wouldn’t be able to replicate this, that it would somehow ruin the memory of the film – particularly in the lofty surroundings of the Haymarket Theatre.
Fear not.
It seems that the creators of the stage play were determined not to lose any of the low key intimacy, the mistaken familiarity and the creeping sense of disaster which make the film such a classic.
The play follows Dan Gallagher (Mark Bazeley) a happily married lawyer who whilst home alone one weekend makes the critical mistake of sleeping with seductive stranger Alex Forrest (Natascha McElhone). Bezeley takes some time to tune in to the pace and tone of the piece or perhaps it took me a little while to get used to the style and structure but once he found his rhythm his decline becomes nothing short of mesmeric. From start to finish he is our narrator, and he barely leaves the stage throughout, he is a wonderful presence and tackles the difficult twists extraordinarily well.
Natascha McElhone also gives a very powerful turn as the fragile and unpredictable mistress. She grabs the iconic role made famous by Glenn Close firmly by the horns and makes it completely her own. The chemistry she shares with Bazeley serves to make her decline more threatening, her normality is packed with a sinister subtext which is alway sizzling just beneath – she is fabulous.
And they are backed by a company of committed and on the whole impressive actors including Kristin Davis, who plays the cheated wife, with a sweetness and innocence which makes the deed all the more repellent
The greatest compliment you can pay Trevor Nunn’s production is that it brings to life a film which has become a cult classic and offers it something new. James Dearden’s script is as clever and the production captures a similar inescapable claustrophobia. At times its cinematic at others operatic but most of the time it operates in the magical realm which makes theatre so enthralling.
Perhaps some of the transitions are a little clunky to mask the ever changing environments and the early scenes may also be a little over written, but the story is brilliant. It makes you wrestle with your allegiances, unsure where the line between right and wrong blurs or who exactly should take the blame. It operates in the middle of a wonderfully crafted moral dilemma and the way in which that dilemma is constructed is the play’s ultimate success.
We were very kindly given the opportunity to review Dirty Rotten Scoundrels by www.officialtheatre.com please click here to go to their site.