THEATRE REVIEW: The Girl on The Train ★★★

The Girl on the Train

Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham

Monday 28th January - Saturday 2nd February 2019

Based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins, Samantha Womack plays Rachel Watson, an divorced, alcoholic woman who everyday for the last six months of losing her job, watches from her train carriage at a woman and fantasises about her life until one day she goes missing, and the only lasting image in Rachel's mind is this woman's body being held by a man who is not her husbands. 

Never having read the book or seen the film, I went into this production completely dark but it  had not been without knowing the huge impact in what this book had originally become; I was fully aware of the premise and it was one that excited me hugely initially, with the thriller genre being a personal favourite, so I was extremely excited to watch this production, and though overall I felt feeling somewhat satisfied, there were moments that sadly didn't quite struck a cord with my emotions.

Samantha Womack and the whole cast should be commended for their acting and chemistry in this production, especially as the run of this new tour had only started a week prior; the chemistry between all the characters fully immersed me into the action and I was finding myself laugh at the most awkward and tender moments in the production, and mixed together with Anthony Banks direction and James Cotterills' realistic and hugely clever set design with inter-changing apartments, I found the majority of the production to flow smoothly and without a hitch, especially with Andrzej Goulding's subtle Projection Design helping enhance the trains presence on stage as well as background features surrounding the set pieces. It was though at moments occurring in the psychiatrist's office were I found the action to halt, and with chairs being lowered from the rack above the stage, I found this a tedious action when in latter scenes stagehands were appearing to place furniture to the appropriate scenes, both occasions resulting in long scene changes or overlapping tense dialogue as the former proved more. 

Storywise I found myself largely compelled to the twists that I could hardly see coming, again not being aware of the climax of the book or film making my experience that extra bit more enjoyable, but sadly it was at the final moments in the production, which in later research have I found the book and film's version to be different, where I suddenly found myself break away from this enjoyable and become baffled with the action, with one of the most underwhelming conclusions of a production I have seen of late. Having now known the ending to the other forms of entertainment under the name, I would have liked to of seen the original ending in this production to keep with the continuity and suspense which I am sure would have kept me on the edge of my seat till the very end!

Overall, The Girl on the Train for the most part is a compelling piece and is at it's strongest with a magnificent ensemble cast who bring many layers to their counterparts, but sadly fails to keep the momentum and intensity due to strenuous scene changes and a underwhelming climax.