The Girl on the Train 🚆

#PRInvite #Gifted | Stand back from the platform edge, the new UK tour of 'The Girl on the Train' comes to Aberdeen this week - with a TV icon who is sure to 'turn heads' as Rachel Watson.

Star rating: ★★★★

The Paula Hawkins thriller, ‘The Girl on the Train’, has pulled into the station - rolling into His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, this week. Aberdeen audiences don’t need to depend on their memories of the production pre-pandemic, as this slightly reimagined production of the popular title is here to remind everyone just how good it is. The novel, originally published in 2015, has had a successful journey from page to stage - with an adaptation for the screen following full steam ahead of it the consequent year. 10 years on, the show has embarked on its second UK tour - with star casting all aboard.

‘The Girl on the Train’ is stationed around Rachel Watson: an alcoholic whose life has fallen into disrepair following her divorce. She journeys from the fictional town of Ashbury to London Euston each morning, fooling herself about still being employed, and looking for a sense of purpose along the way. She is approached by the police who suspect she is involved in the disappearance of Megan Hipwell - a woman who Rachel sees enjoying her life on her posh terraced balcony from the train window. Yet, whilst Rachel fantasizes about Megan’s supposed perfect life, she starts to swap 'pinot' for Poirot and investigates the case for herself. The show tests her wilting memory as she stumbles towards the answers, forcing herself into the homes and workplaces of the suspects of the disappearance. As the pieces start to come together, Rachel realises she holds onto some of Megan’s secrets and has to explain to the police that she was telling the truth all along - but she didn’t know she was lying.

Channeling her inner Humphrey Bogart is Love Island presenter, Laura Whitmore, as Rachel Watson. I’ve been looking forward to seeing her portrayal of this part since being in the audience for the first live show of ‘Murder They Wrote’ at Granite Noir - here, swapping her genuine interest in true crime to resurface her acting roots for this thriller play. It has to be said, Laura Whitmore is First Class -where her background in Drama training and latter Journalism degree make her the perfect match both professionally and personally for the role. Her portrayal of Rachel was compelling, and she handled the complexities of the character effortlessly.

Enriching the grizzly story tenfold is the undercurrent of psychology woven throughout: exploring the effects of alcohol on one’s memory, perception and Freudian theories about the subconscious. Beyond this, the narrative explores themes of loss - and particularly grieving something you never had, which is quite unique to see on stage. I really enjoyed how such strong messages ran parallel within the script, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, this bound to leave a lasting impression on theatregoers this week. Perhaps the most important lesson of the show is that all roses have thorns - and comparing ourselves to the life of someone we don’t know doesn’t always work out in ways you think it will.

It may shock readers that this is a story I was familiar with - I really love Paula Hawkins’ work. Having read the novel, watched the film and seen the play previously, what I love about this title is that it offers something new with each iteration. Wagstaff and Abel have restructured minute details of the plot, and this creates further emphasis on them with their rearrangement. Not many plays probe into the impact of divorce, either, and there was a really interesting allegory about the differences between divorce and death - and how in some respects, death can be easier for someone to process.

I absolutely adored Rachel Wagstaff’s work on ‘Birdsong’, so wasn’t surprised by some of the gut-punching lines in the production, balanced out with some good moments of humour both verbally and non-verbally. The production is directed by Loveday Ingram, and includes a fantastic character arc for Rachel who we meet as a mess, and with her newfound purpose, she tries to pull herself out of the darkness and get back on track.

The show has been transformed slightly since its original tour, and I think this worked out for the better. The stage space is quite contained, and set against a static backdrop of projections - which for the first half, I was not fully impressed by. This sentiment changed in the second part, though, where the technology of the stage design comes to life - it is just a shame that it doesn’t capture the attention of the audiences in the same way all the way throughout. The lighting and video design, curated by Dan Light, are projected onto a tripartite design, allowing for illusions to take place behind the main action. Though the set up was simple, it was extremely clever to use the projections to represent Rachel’s psyche: offering the audience an insight into her brain. This was achieved by fusing together white noise and static visual patterns representing a loss in her memory; and flashbacks to small details Rachel bore witness to from the train window. I loved how the projections used during the train sequence reflected the flashes of light on the book cover: whether this was intentional or not, I thought it was a really neat nod to the original material.

The standout of the production design was the use of lighting by Jack Knowles. The show explored the use of LEDs on the stage floor to create different settings, from therapists offices, busy streets and the train tracks when concluding the show. In tandem with the projections - the show has a tonal shift at the very end, symbolic of hope, change and the light at the end of the tunnel for the characters.

Joining Laura Whitmore are Samuel Collings as Scott Hipwell; Zena Carswell as Anna Watson; Freya Parks as Megan Hipwell; Paul McEwan as D.I. Gaskill; Daniel Burke as Kamal Abdic and Edward Harrison as Tom Watson. Rounding out the production in ensemble roles are Oliver Joseph Brooke and Ellie Gallimore. It is an intimate production with a small handful of actors, but most of the show works on a two-hand ratio, with Whitmore never leaving the stage. 

‘The Girl on the Train’ is a captivating story which most are familiar with, but with the passing of time, seem to have forgotten - or at least, that’s what I was hearing around the auditorium last night. The show is the last week-long sit down for Aberdeen Performing Arts until August, so it is your last chance to see something of this calibre for a while at His Majesty’s Theatre. Remind yourself of how Rachel and Megan’s lives are lined and paths are crossed this week before the production departs for its next venue.

Credits

Instagram links: @theatregramuk, @aberdeenperformingarts, @thegirlonthetraintour

Review by Joel Simpson cc: theatregram@gmail.com

Production photos supplied by Aberdeen Performing Arts