REVIEW
✭✭✭✭☆ 4/5
The Girl On The Train
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
Wed 7th May 2025 - Sat 10th May 2025
✭✭✭✭☆ 4/5
The Girl On The Train
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
Wed 7th May 2025 - Sat 10th May 2025
Adapted from a best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins and also later made into a successful film, the stage version certainly keeps the suspense and mystery throughout. If you enjoy a psychological thriller with a twisty plot, then this is the play for you!
It deals with the concepts of memory and emotion and how memories cannot always be relied upon for the truth or at least the whole truth. Even very recent memory can be “excitingly corrupt in its inclination to make a proper story of the past” (Jenny Diski, author of Skating to Antarctica).
Making a proper story of the past is what this play is about and the gradual layers of revelation that the characters reveal lead the audience from one conclusion to another.
The events of the past, that are being pieced together like a sprawling jigsaw, are not pleasant, and involve a particularly gruesome crime. The audience and the characters are constantly wondering whose version of events can be trusted.
Two of the characters have contrasting abilities to recall the past. The character of Megan (played by Natalie Dunne) seems to have particularly vivid and detailed memories of the long distant past, whereas the girl on the train, played by Louisa Lytton struggles with her recollections, even though they are much more recent.
At the heart of the story is a whodunnit and the scenes and dialogue cleverly lead the audience along a track that has unpredictable curves and sharp turns. Who can we believe? Tom, the ex -husband, played by Jason Merrells; his new wife, Anna (Zena Carswell) or the husband of the alluring woman seen from the train each day in her garden played by Samuel Collings? Will the detective (Paul Mcewan) manage to piece the evidence together? And where does the unprofessional therapist (Kamal Abdic) fit in?
The dialogue is sharp and at times funny. The writers Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel propel the plot through numerous short, pithy scenes.
The tension is heightened by the use of very effective video and large projections on a mostly bare stage to provide an ever-changing backdrop to events. There are minimal props and furniture which help the attention to focus in on the action and the exchanges of the characters. The sounds are quite terrifying in places and very effective in drawing you in to the atmospheric drama of the situation. I enjoyed the use of the cast as a mute ensemble which, at times, came together suddenly to present a scene and then quickly dissolved to set up the next scene, resuming their individual characters in seconds.
It is an accomplished cast and they all convincingly portray their distinct characters. There is pace in the dialogue but at times it would have benefitted from a crisper and more vigorous delivery. There were moments when I strained to hear what was being said by Louisa Lytton and Jason Merrells.
Overall, this is an enjoyable and worthwhile evening’s entertainment if you like a spooky ride. By turns, chilling, and puzzling, I would recommend a trip to this station – the train stops at Westcliff. Get on board – if you dare!
Review: Vanessa Osborn
It deals with the concepts of memory and emotion and how memories cannot always be relied upon for the truth or at least the whole truth. Even very recent memory can be “excitingly corrupt in its inclination to make a proper story of the past” (Jenny Diski, author of Skating to Antarctica).
Making a proper story of the past is what this play is about and the gradual layers of revelation that the characters reveal lead the audience from one conclusion to another.
The events of the past, that are being pieced together like a sprawling jigsaw, are not pleasant, and involve a particularly gruesome crime. The audience and the characters are constantly wondering whose version of events can be trusted.
Two of the characters have contrasting abilities to recall the past. The character of Megan (played by Natalie Dunne) seems to have particularly vivid and detailed memories of the long distant past, whereas the girl on the train, played by Louisa Lytton struggles with her recollections, even though they are much more recent.
At the heart of the story is a whodunnit and the scenes and dialogue cleverly lead the audience along a track that has unpredictable curves and sharp turns. Who can we believe? Tom, the ex -husband, played by Jason Merrells; his new wife, Anna (Zena Carswell) or the husband of the alluring woman seen from the train each day in her garden played by Samuel Collings? Will the detective (Paul Mcewan) manage to piece the evidence together? And where does the unprofessional therapist (Kamal Abdic) fit in?
The dialogue is sharp and at times funny. The writers Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel propel the plot through numerous short, pithy scenes.
The tension is heightened by the use of very effective video and large projections on a mostly bare stage to provide an ever-changing backdrop to events. There are minimal props and furniture which help the attention to focus in on the action and the exchanges of the characters. The sounds are quite terrifying in places and very effective in drawing you in to the atmospheric drama of the situation. I enjoyed the use of the cast as a mute ensemble which, at times, came together suddenly to present a scene and then quickly dissolved to set up the next scene, resuming their individual characters in seconds.
It is an accomplished cast and they all convincingly portray their distinct characters. There is pace in the dialogue but at times it would have benefitted from a crisper and more vigorous delivery. There were moments when I strained to hear what was being said by Louisa Lytton and Jason Merrells.
Overall, this is an enjoyable and worthwhile evening’s entertainment if you like a spooky ride. By turns, chilling, and puzzling, I would recommend a trip to this station – the train stops at Westcliff. Get on board – if you dare!
Review: Vanessa Osborn
