Girl on the Train

Girl on the Train

The Lowry Salford

11th to 15th February

Girl on the train has been adapted from the best-selling book by Paula Hawkins. A film adaptation was made some years ago and failed to meet expectations, I’m not sure that this version has greatly exceeded this either.

The central character Rachel (Giovanna Fletcher) of which the story is based around has little light in her life. She goes to work every day, looking at of the window at a house where a couple are always seen embracing and who look very much in love. One day she sees the girl with another man and wonders who this man is. The following day she receives a visit from the police and Rachel finds herself as a possible suspect as the girl has disappeared.

Giovanna Fletcher (2:22 A Ghost Story, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) gives the character grit. Rachel is a drunk who experience black out episodes and bouts of amnesia. Giovanna plays the role as a shouty drunk, and I didn’t feel much empathy towards her. If we saw more despair and quieter moments from her character, I think I would have cared more for her outcome, however she did manage to get us to an unexpected destination. Rachel’s ex-husband Tom played by Jason Merrells (Cutting it, Waterloo Road) appears as a supportive, well-mannered and caring or at least it seems! As we see the story progresses, we find a much darker side to the character.

Paul McEwan plays DI Gaskill. Paul is the glue that holds everything together, he also brings some much needed humour to the production. Megan’s husband Scott Hipwell is played by Samual Collings. Samual shines in this production as he steers us through the sea of his emotions.

The book can be a heavy read, but this adaptation is heavily cut and is now littered with plenty of humorous lines, that helped the play amble along. Those who haven’t read the book and have a reference point might struggle to piece of the puzzle together. Megan’s character jarred from one characterisation to another and didn’t really seem to flow. There was so much cut from the book that key elements and character development were omitted. We were left longing for the light at the end of the tunnel but felt derailed. A good element of the production was the projections across the stage creating great back drops of rainy landscapes, simple home interiors and railway tracks.

Girl on the train will be playing at the Lowry until Saturday 15th February.