AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: The Girl On The Train - The Gladstone Theatre, Port Sunlight, Wirral.

This was my first ever visit to the Gladstone Theatre in Port Sunlight to watch a play and also the first production I've seen presented by Bebington Dramatic Society, who are a long established amateur group. The Gladstone Theatre is a traditional proscenium arch theatre with a good number of seats, all on one level. Thank you to the volunteers for their help and welcome.

Unfortunately, the start of the play was rather delayed due to significant difficulties related to the lighting. Two separate announcements were made to reassure the audience that the show would go ahead, albeit with some changes, and we were asked to bear with it. This problem affected a few of the early scenes but the production generally progressed smoothly thereafter. There was also a small amount of minor sound issues. To give the actors credit, they coped well with the technical problems which were out of their control.

The action begins with Rachel Watson (Ticki Clark) lying on the floor of her apartment, surrounded by empty bottles, glasses and general debris, as a result of a heavy ‘party for one’. She is awoken from her drunken stupor when her phone rings (she doesn’t answer) before her intercom buzzes. She gets up and is greeted by DI Gaskill (Anna Shaw) who is there to question Rachel about the disappearance of Megan Hipwell (Alex Wharton). Rachel’s memory of last night is hazy, due to a combination of booze and an unexplained head injury.

I must commend Clark for her tour-de-force performance as she stumbles and struggles through all her interactions with the other characters, particularly her ex-husband Tom Watson (Mike Jones) and his new wife Anna (Jenny Dewhirst). Tom and Anna now have a baby, Evie, much to Rachel’s chagrin as she and Tom had tried and failed to have children of their own. Megan babysits for Tom and Anna, which causes tension between them. Megan herself is married to Scott (Michael Webster) and their relationship is fractured. We see elements of her sessions with therapist Karl Abdic (Gareth Jones), and it becomes clearer later on why she needs professional help.

Rachel is the eponymous character of the play as we see her travelling to work, sat on a train seat situated on one side of the stage. During these journeys she goes past her old house in the same street where Megan and Scott live and regularly sees Megan on her balcony. She doesn’t know Megan but gives her and her husband names and imagines their perfect life together.

I don’t want to spoil the plot, other than to say that there are many twists and turns. There are lots of cleverly staged flashbacks, which was one of the highlights for me. These earlier memories especially involve Karl whom Rachel wangles her way into seeing as she tries to find out more about Megan.

Speaking truthfully, I found the pace of the play a little slow but in overall terms, I liked the story as it unfolded, with some long buried and tragic secrets being revealed. Because of that, I can recommend the production, which runs nightly until Saturday the 11th.

Generally, there was good interplay between the actors. However, I wanted to see more passion and anger in certain scenes, as this would have been understandable and would have strengthened the impact of what is a taut, psychological drama. Having not read the book, I didn’t know what to expect, but the applause at the end from an appreciative audience was well deserved.

Reviewer - David Swift
on - 8.3.23