REVIEW - The Girl on the Train makes you hold your breath, pulls you forward, and ensures you can hear a pin drop!

On Tuesday, we went to Lowry in Salford to see The Girl on the Train. Read what our reviewer Karen Ryder had to say about this exciting thriller...

It’s not every book that can boast it has sold over 20 million copies, been turned into a Dreamworks film, and now a successful play, but The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins can!  This international phenomenon has already had one sell out UK tour, and now, after a revamp, and on its second tour, seems to be selling out all over again.  With crime, intrigue and murder stories having a huge surge in popularity, whether it be in the form of a TV drama, podcast, or play, this psychological thriller seems to have found an audience in just about every outlet.  I have read the book and seen the film, but somehow missed the last tour of the play, so it is with a heightened excitement and drumming adrenaline that I enter the Lyric Theatre, Lowry and come face to face with a desolate stage, decorated only with the stains of a heavy night of drinking.  

Adapted for stage by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, The Girl on the Train begs the question – is the grass always greener on the other side?  Rachel Watson seems to think so, as she longingly conjures up a whole life for the couple she watches from her train window every day.  Beguiled by their seemingly perfect life, Rachel longs for that kind of love and happiness for herself.  That is until the woman goes missing and Rachel is forced to connect with some realities that she has been trying to drown out with alcohol and fantasy.  As Rachel finds herself at the heart of a dangerous and unpredictable mystery, both as a witness and a suspect, she is at a loss as to who she can trust, including her own memory and instinct.  Deemed unreliable, Rachel starts to doubt her own mind, her own recollections, placing her in a dark and dangerous situation.  The Girl on the Train takes us on a journey of suspense, twists, and volatile thrills, simultaneously staring difficult themes of addiction, abuse and control in their threatening face.

Directed by Loveday Ingram, this production brutally but brilliantly shines the light on trust, duplicity of character, and manipulation.  The actors have been given licence to bring their characters to life beyond the page so that every look, every pause, sigh, or movement, means something, hides something, or tricks us into thinking something.  As an audience, we are sitting ducks, prime targets to take on this journey of coercion, confusion, and caustic contempt, expertly manoeuvred via the work of a creative team that have subtly enriched this production tenfold.  A chilling haze, a murmur of malevolent music, and an ominous darkness intoxicate the mind, enticing a lurking danger and an unknown threat.  It is brilliant theatre, directing us exactly how to think and feel.  A double screen plunges us swiftly between scenes, whilst surrounding the stage with mood, including shifting the incessant rain, almost making it feel 3D.  It is only during the second act that the second screen proves itself to be so much more, and is used to brilliant effect in multiple ways, including inducing us into the tornado of Rachel’s mind.  It also makes an excellent train tunnel, adding palpable tension to the final scenes.  This design by Adam Wiltshire plays a vital role in making this production a thriller.  The whole thing is so subtle, I didn’t realise just how much we had been pulled into darkness until the lights came on at the interval and shocked just about everyone.    

Giovanna Fletcher (Wish You Were Dead, 2:22 A Ghost Story, author) is beautifully tragic as Rachel Watson.  We empathise with her, pity her, mistrust her, believe her, like and dislike her all at the same time.  She makes us a paradox of ourselves, and this is a wonderful skill to make our own minds mirror Rachel’s, so we no longer know what to think, for our version of reality keeps changing.  As Rachel, Giovanna Fletcher barely leaves the stage and doesn’t lose our attention for a second.  She is captivating and her storytelling skills keep us trapped in the palm of her hand.  Rachel’s ex-husband Tom is brought to life by Jason Merrells (Waterloo Road, Happy Valley, Finding Alice) and he shows everything we need of him towards Rachel’s hardship - patience, understanding, charm, and compassion.  With a perfect understanding of what makes a psychological thriller work, Jason Merrells nails it, taking our hand through the twists, turns, and sharp surprises.  He also brings an unexpected humour to the show. 

This is equally true of Zena Carswell (A Voyage Around My Father, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Another Stage) as Anna Watson and Samuel Collings (Murder On The Orient Express, Jekyll & Hyde, Outlander) as Scott, both of whom find their lives suddenly entwined with a chilling crime.  With moments of tension nudged with perfectly timed one liners, they swiftly race back to those hold your breathe moments.  The wrecking ball of brilliantly executed emotions keeps coming, particularly through Natalie Dunne (Work Of Art, Frankenstein, Great Expectations) as Megan who talks us through some difficult times in scenes with her therapist Kamal, performed by Daniel Burke (Romeo & Juliet, A Comedy Of Errors, The Witcher).  We see a touching vulnerability from Natalie Dunne as she navigates her historical, and even present, complex relationships.  Daniel Burke leaves many of us questioning our opinions of his character Kamal, for again his performance gives us reason to both admire and abhor Kamal.  Completing the main cast is Paul McEwan (Emmerdale, Witness For The Prosecution, Othello) as D.I. Gaskill, a somewhat more sympathetic version of the character than I imagined, and one I much preferred.  This choice, backed up by the retelling of his own experiences of living with addiction and alcohol, allowed that slither of doubt to take root in our minds, to not dismiss our instincts in favour of supposed evidence.  And his solid yet calm presence was vital amidst the chaos.   

With a series of flashbacks and theatrical techniques that allow us to jump across timelines and revisit scenes through memory recall, the need for any kind of physical train is removed.  Instead, the show beats with suspended belief and suggestion at its heart, trusting its cast, creatives, and audience to work in harmony and accept its representation without the need for lavish scenery and sets.  The Girl on the Train is the kind of theatre that makes you hold your breath, pulls you forwards towards the edge of your seat, and ensures you can hear a pin drop.  It is a fascinating insight into memory, perceived, real, half remembered or pure fantasy.  It explores how our own minds can powerfully deceive us, edit, delete and even rewrite the truth, and just how dangerous that can be.  But it also gives us hope that the truth, our truth, is there, right inside us, even if it is hiding, it can be found.  Sometimes we just have to trust our instincts, trust those primitive emotions, those hunches, because it is our minds way of trying to tell us something that perhaps we should be listening to.  For if we don’t, someone else may just remember for you.  

WE SCORE THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN...

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The Girl on the Train is on at Lowry, Manchester until Saturday 15th February 2025


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