Girl on the Train, Mayflower Theatre, review: ‘Uncomfortable from start to finish’

It’s always difficult to have a protagonist with very few redeeming qualities, so The Girl on the Train struggles from the off to engage its audience.
The Girl on The Train in rehearsal. Samantha Womack (Rachel Watson) and Adam Jackson Smith (Tom Watson). Picture by Helen MaybanksThe Girl on The Train in rehearsal. Samantha Womack (Rachel Watson) and Adam Jackson Smith (Tom Watson). Picture by Helen Maybanks
The Girl on The Train in rehearsal. Samantha Womack (Rachel Watson) and Adam Jackson Smith (Tom Watson). Picture by Helen Maybanks

With an unreliable narrator at the centre of the plot, played convincingly by a hair-fiddling Samantha Womack, you’re left wondering about her motivation – and whether it’s strong enough to carry both her, and the audience, through the second half especially as the phantom relationship between her and the missing woman was skimmed by at fast non-stop service speed.

Plus, a good proportion of the show lives in the past, and though it’s gamely brought to life by ghost-like appearances, the ‘thriller’ nature of the story’s core never feels quite realised.

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As the plot rolls on, with our heroine scrambling to understand the holes in her memory and how filling them could solve lots of puzzles, lightness was added by the Scottish detective, played in droll monotone by John Dougall. Invariably, and unfortunately, we’re left hanging onto every word waiting for ‘there’s been a murder’. 

James Cotterill’s set was great, with some lovely stylised touches such as the therapist’s office, and I particularly liked the way in which Rachel was on stage throughout each scene change, using the moment to widen our perspectives as hers shrank in the clever lighting by Jack Knowles.

It all felt small, and itchy and rather uncomfortable from start to finish – and perhaps that is the intention to draw us into this unreliable world.