On the Right Track

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, Saturday 25^th February 2023

Paula Hawkins’s best-selling novel is so effective because of its first person narrative, from the girl on the train herself.  She’s an unreliable narrator, so we’re never sure if what she says happened happened or whether it’s her booze-tinted imagination.  The stage adaptation by Duncan Abel & Rachel Wagstaff has to take a different approach as the Girl is revealed to be a fantasist, her story contradicting itself… A tough call for any actor taking on the role and here, Grace Cheadle rises to the challenge and nails it.  Her Rachel Watson is off-kilter, brittle and bitter, but also vulnerable and appealing.  We are with her all the way, happy to go along for the ride.

Briefly, the plot has Rachel commuting to work by train.  Her emotional life is a bit of a train wreck and so she self-medicates with day-drinking. Through the windows she sees people’s houses and fantasises about who they are and what they’re called.  One day, one of her regular characters is not there… A woman has gone missing and the police are involved.  Can Rachel’s unreliable evidence be of use or will she implicate herself?  To add to the mix, a couple of doors down from the missing woman’s home live Rachel’s ex-husband and his new wife and baby…and so a series of explosive scenes are set in train.

The multi-purpose set allows the action to zip along like an express train – we never have to wait for furniture to be shifted – and scenes are linked with video clips, extending the action beyond the set pieces: we see characters being taken in for questioning, for example, and there are clips of Rachel boozing on the train, to the distaste of other passengers.

The excellent central performance from Cheadle is supported by a strong ensemble.  Particularly effective is David Baldwin’s Detective Inspector Gaskill; Baldwin has a casual, natural style but still means business.  It’s a superb contrast with Cheadle’s more manic moments and self-doubt.  Tom Lowde, as Rachel’s ex, and Victoria Youster as new wife Anna are perfectly smug and annoying (from Rachel’s pov) while Oliver Jones captures the volatility of Scott, the missing woman’s husband.  Papa Yentumi’s therapist balances professional intonations with personal impulses, and Charlotte Thompson crops up repeatedly in flashbacks as the missing Megan, imbued with an almost saintly air (from Rachel’s pov) despite her bad behaviour.  Completing the cast is Susan Keats’s police officer, a small but crucial part well conveyed.

Director Rod Natkiel keeps the action fluid and clear.  The fast pace winds up the tension and the use of video flashbacks to display Rachel’s fractured memories works well.  It’s just when we reach the climactic, violent denouement that things go off the rails and get a bit muddy and unfocussed.  Perhaps the video screens could be used to augment the moment, seeing how they’ve been so integral to the rest of the production…

All in all, the production delivers the mystery, the tension, and the surprises of the story, and there’s plenty of humour to leaven the unpleasantness.  An involving thriller that doesn’t outstay its welcome. All aboard!

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Grace Cheadle and David Baldwin (Photo: Graeme Braidwood)

Ideas Above Her Station

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, Monday 18^th March, 2019

 

Paula Hawkins’s smash hit novel comes to the stage in this effective adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel.  Our protagonist is Rachel, a woman whose life has gone off the rails since her divorce from Tom.  She hits the bottle and commutes to London, her journey taking her past her former house.  She makes up lives for the people she sees, especially a young couple she calls Jess and Jason.  Except Jess is really Megan and Megan has gone missing… and Rachel has drink-induced gaps in her memory…

As ramshackle Rachel, Samantha Womack is superb, stumbling through the mystery like a drunken (and much younger) Miss Marple, conducting her own investigation just as the cops are investigating her.  Rachel is on stage throughout, so we only get to find out what she finds out.  Womack manages to arouse our sympathy for this broken woman and she is also rather funny.

Oliver Farnworth is also strong as Megan’s buff and bluff husband Scott, whose fits of rage make him a suspect.  John Dougall is highly enjoyable as Detective Inspector Gaskill, and there is a good supporting cast: namely, Naeem Hayat’s shady therapist Kamal, Adam Jackson-Smith as Rachel’s smarmy ex-husband Tom, and especially Lowenna Melrose as Tom’s second wife, Anna – her exchanges with Womack are bitter fun.  Kirsty Oswald comes and goes as missing Megan; she gets her moment in the spotlight, recounting the harrowing history of her baby in a particularly affecting scene.

Director Anthony Banks keeps the action fluid; the scene transitions run more smoothly than any rail service, with James Cotterill’s pieces of scenery sliding in and out and across, their motion bringing to mind railway carriages – or perhaps I’ve just been commuting too long myself.  Jack Knowles’s lighting and Andrzej Goulding’s projections suggest the passing trains as well as heightening moments of tension.  Banks brings all of these elements together to give us a taut, twisty thriller that retains the flavour of the book and improves on the film adaptation.

As well as a whodunnit, it’s a play about the abuse of women by men – but don’t let that put you off.  Compelling and intriguing, this touring production is well worth getting on board for.

Oliver Farnworth and Samantha Womack (Photo: Manuel Harlan)