This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour saw The Girl on The Train at the invite of The Alexandra.
By Dave Massey x.com/BrumHour
The Girl on The Train at The Alexandra: Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐A dark engrossing thriller
Rachel Watson has been watching a couple from her regular commuter train, near her ex-husband’s, for quite some time. She’s made up a life for them but discovers her real name is Megan and she has gone missing. The day before Megan went missing, Rachel saw Megan with a different man from her view on her train. She heads to the house to chat to Scott, who she discovers is Megan’s husband.
This is a completely restaged version of this story compared to the previous UK tour. Rachel has a matress she crumples into and empty bottles of wine hang regularly nearby. The stage contains three large hanging banners with mostly huge raindrops flowing down them. When Rachel is drinking the view of the street becomes blurry and phases in and out. There are large set structures later on which add a sense of danger to the production.
Louisa Lytton is excellent as Rachel, fragile, determined, strong and vulnerable. Jason Merrells is great too as her ex-husband Tom, who trying to move on. Daniel Burke, Zena Carswell and Natalie Dunne all deliver excellent performances and Samuel Collings gives a stark performance as Scott. Paul McEwan provides plenty of dark humour as D.I. Gaskill stealing every second he is on the stage.
The play slips forward and backward into memories and half-remembered stories as the action progresses. And seeing Louisa Lytton switch from drunkard to sober then angry within the same scene is very cool.
My only real negative is the sheer volume of the soundscape. My ears were ringing after each half was over.
Seeing this show doesn’t require any foreknowledge of the story and if someone has tickets and wants you to go, you should do so. A dark engrossing thriller, The Girl on The Train is at The Alexandra until 3rd May 2025. Book tickets here: atgtickets.com/shows/the-girl-on-the-train/the-alexandra-theatre-birmingham.
