DramaReviewScotland

The Girl on the Train – Theatre Royal, Glasgow

Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys

Writer: Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel (based on the novel by Paula Hawkins)

Director: Loveday Ingram

Designer: Adam Witshire

In 2015, British writer Paula Hawkins’ debut novel The Girl on the Train, became a runaway best-seller around the globe (it was the year’s number one on the New York Times Fiction Best Sellers List, topping the charts for an astounding 16 weeks). With a Hollywood movie adaptation starring Emily Blunt following sharply on its heels a year later, albeit with a re-setting to New York instead of London, we now have Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel’s 2018 stage version re-touring the country. What the stage play does is restore it to its original and more gritty location with a rather more messy heroine than the big budget movie incarnation.

Binge drinking Rachel Watson (Giovanna Fletcher) passes her old house and her ex-husband with his new life, wife and baby, every day as she commutes to work. While her attention is initially on her ex Tom and his trophy wife Anna, whom she has harassed relentlessly, it strays to a house a few doors down where she finds a new fixation “Jason & Jess” as she’s dubbed them, and their seemingly perfect life. Little does she know that Jess’s life is far from idyllic. When Rachel wakes up one day, bloody and injured with little recollection of what has happened, she finds out “Jess”, actually Megan, is missing. She inveigles her way into the police investigation, befriending Megan’s husband Scott and visiting Jesss psychotherapist Dr. Abdic under false pretences. As Rachel slowly sobers up, her memories become gradually clearer and there’s a whole shoal of red herrings to wade through before we come to the shocking denouement.

The design by Adam Wiltshire can be at best described as sparse. There’s no train, just some flashing lights and a choreographed sequence with the ensemble swaying back and forth and chattering. Rachel’s grubby hovel of a flat in the previous incarnation is boiled down to a duvet and some detritus scattered on the bare stage floor. The minimal strip lighting and gloomy projections and shadow work, barely cut through the gloom of the black box staging. It’s grindingly dull artistically.

Loveday Ingram’s production is slow to get into gear, the action starts with the ringing doorbell of Rachel’s flat signalling her descent into a living hell. For those who have no knowledge of the story, Ingram’s directorial decisions do little to establish the complex layers of the tale quickly enough. One can’t help think that most of the staging decisions have been based on finance rather than serving the story well. Where the stage production differs from the book and movie incarnations is the frequent black humour, which provides light relief in this dark tale. The scenes between Rachel and sardonic D.I. Gaskell (Paul McEwan) are particularly well-played. Indeed, McEwan is actually the stand-out performer of the night.

Having firmly established herself as a national treasure, Giovanna Fletcher’s Rachel is a little lacking. Her natural warmth shines in the comedic moments but the more dramatic are a little over-played. The production is un-amplified and at times Fletcher’s nasal voice and some of her fellow performers’, struggle to fill this vast auditorium.

The real question that deserves addressing for those who have read the book or seen the movie is – does it affect the enjoyment? Not entirely. The script is clever enough in the second act to provide enough twisting and turning about how they get to the dramatic conclusion for the audience, familiar or not, to feel satisfied.

The Girl on the Train is at its core a fantastic story and this is a solid enough, but very much no-frills production.

Runs until 1 February 2025 | Image: Pamela Raith

The Reviews Hub Score

A no-frills production

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The Reviews Hub - Scotland

The Scotland team is under the editorship of Lauren Humphreys. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. We aim to review all professional types of theatre, whether that be Commercial, Repertory or Fringe as well as Comedy, Music, Gigs etc.

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