Let the Right One In

What I Saw.

Take a successful Swedish horror film about the friendship between a 12-year-old boy and a vampire girl, re-write it in English, change the setting to a Glasgow housing estate and put it on the London stage. Design the set so it resembles a snow covered forest, buy bucket loads of fake blood, throw in a few knifes and you certainly have all the ingredients for a theatrical hit.

I absolutely loved the original film. It was dark and unsettling, yes, but it was also tender and quite beautiful. Two years later, it was re-made in English - because people still have problems reading subtitles, it seems - and the characters were suddenly transported to a small town in New Mexico. I have no problem with films being remade, as long as they do something a bit clever with it, justifying the update. If all they do is change the location and translate the language, it's not original or clever. But I was very intrigued when I heard about the stage adaption. There were things that were just impossible to do on stage (I thought) - swimming pool scenes, horrific bloody murders, and a particularly gruesome bit where a character is attacked by a house full of cats - so the director and playwright were going to have to change the story to make it work, surely. My friend Lisa and I were laughing about the cat thing before the play even began… what were they going to do? Have live, bloodthirsty cats on stage, maybe stuffed cats, the mind boggled. It was also the only play I have ever seen advertised, that had an age restriction on it! Blimey. 

The play began with something soothing, to guide us in gently... a man being brutally attacked and rendered unconscious. Lovely. He was then strung upside down from a tree, had his throat slit and was left to bleed out. Oh my God. The poor actor, was the first thing that sprung to my mind, all that blood going right up his nose! At that point, the audience knew they were in for a gore fest. Bullying, friendship, love and retribution pretty much sum up the plot but what was happening on stage was definitely not for the lighthearted. A couple behind us gasped and muttered disapprovingly whenever someone was killed and more blood was sprayed and splashed about the stage. I have to admit, it was quite unsettling, watching the young vampire girl (and actress) kill her first victim… biting into his neck, lifting her pale face, dark crimson blood oozing from her mouth. 

And there were some really scary, 'jump out of your skin' moments too. I won't spoil it for you, but one particular occasion had the whole audience shriek, recoil and, literally, leave their seats!!

I also have to confess to a giggling fit, well, both Lisa and I got the giggles, which I don't condone in theatres at all (unless it's a comedy, obvs). Not only is it inappropriate and disrespectful to the audience around you and to the actors on stage, but it's damned difficult to control or stop. Hilarious though. It's like actors corpsing on stage… you have no idea what's going to trigger it, but when it comes, it comes instantaneously and without warning. During the interval, I had said to Lisa that for all the thousands of years the vampire girl had lived, why then, could she not speak english properly? A valid point, I thought, because the actress portraying her, had this very peculiar way of talking, forcing out her breath at the end of each faltering and stammering sentence. It was rather annoying. Unfortunately, the second act began with the vampire girl visiting a friend in hospital. She came up to the hospital bed and forced out a weird sounding, 'He-ll-oo'. It sounded like Lionel Ritchie was singing the word from his song Hello, but with an extreme case of constipation. I immediately did the worst thing possible and looked sidewise at Lisa, letting out a small squeak. And that was it. She went completely... I could actually feel her body shaking with laughter. Then off course, because you know it's so taboo, it's even more contagious. I had to turn away from her and the stage, and cover my face with my scarf, it was genuinely painful. Every time I took a breath and calmed down, I would think of the strangled 'Hello' again, and I would go again. Thank goodness the couple behind us had left in the interval (too much blood, I assume) and there was no one to my left, so we didn't disrupt things too much.

This play won't be to everyone's taste but I thoroughly enjoyed it... There were a few slow points and many many bloody moments, but the acting was superb throughout, especially the incredibly talented 18-year-old Martin Quinn, who plays the lead character Oscar. He is definitely one to keep and eye on… sweet, charmingly natural and delightful to watch.

There were no cats (boo, and aptly, a hiss) but there was a swimming pool scene (very impressive it was too, for the pure fact of how long the actor could hold his breath underwater), a dense forest, snow and blood. Just a typical Tuesday night!