Theatre - Fatal Attraction

Who/what/where: Fatal Attraction, Theatre Royal Haymarket

There are certain seasonal trends with West End Theatre, for example a few years ago the plays were very dark, this year it seems to be all about the film adaptations - while there's been a few shows on which have been films, typically these will rely on the original source material and perhaps reference other versions/sources. Fatal Attraction is not one of those, and proudly proclaims the origins. That said, they have managed to get the original screenwriter to pen the stage version, and this has been directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, so there's some good credentials behind the performance.

It was interesting to look around the audience for this one and see how many couples etc there were in the audience. Admittedly this was a matinee, but it did not appear to be a prominent "date play" for the theatre-goers. I wonder why...

For those of you unfamiliar with the storyline of Fatal Attraction, it follows the basic format of (married) boy meets girl, boy gets girl, girl becomes obsessed, and that's when it all starts to go very wrong, increasingly bad stuff happens, a bunny gets boiled, there's an confrontation, and the. The end. There will be potential spoilers below, you have been warned.

The overall cast of the play is strong and Natascha McElhone is clearly enjoying playing the role of Alex Forrest - there's something about that sort of flawed "villain" that no doubt makes it just the sort of role you can get your teeth into.

Without risking giving too much away, the ending of the play is much closer to the original ending of the film (not the one used in the final release) but, if anything, slightly darker. In addition, certain elements have been updated to a more modern setting regarding phones, email, and so on. People are able to stalk each other in a much more varied way than they could back when the film was made. Everyone has a phone with them, there's the internet, email, social media, oh so many ways we can keep track of what people are doing, where they are, and what they've been up to. And that's before we consider how many people post pictures of themselves, check-in to locations etc. But that's a topic for another time.

The play opens with one of the later scenes chronologically as Dan is talking with his friend Jimmy about the problem he's now having with Alex and what to do about it. Dan explains how a series of wrong decisions have led him to this moment, and then we move to the meat of the play - the majority of it taking place prior to this scene.

Of interest was how certain scenes played differently to the audience - I was sat in a place where women were either side of me, so during the scene in which Alex is talking about being pregnant to which Dan offers to pay for an abortion I was able to see how they both crossed their legs as one while using their crossed arms as an almost physical barrier to the scene. As a man this scene had a different feel to me.

The bunny boiling scene was very tastefully done, with no rabbit to be seen, merely a steaming pot.

And finally, the ending. For comparative purposes:
The final cut used in the film is fairly Hollywood where she gets killed after trying to kill him and his family.
The original film ending (not used as it scored poorly with test audiences) has her killing herself, him accused of murder, and then exonerated by a recording of her threatening to commit suicide.
This version is much closer to the film cut, with her killing herself, and him accused of the murder (his prints on the weapon, etc) - the scene ends as he is dragged away by the police. The final scene is Alex killing herself in a reference to Madame Butterfly.

There's quite a bit of Butterfly references during the play and some symbolism along the way. I confess, it was not a story I was familiar with at the start of the show, but did later do some research so I could appreciate it.

Overall, a well-performed play, and worth a watch, but possibly not one for a first date.