AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: The Girl On The Train - The Garrick Playhouse, Altrincham. Manchester.

 

If you can fill a theatre on a freezing cold Monday night in January then you must be doing something right. Such was the case at the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse last night as the latest production in its season, 'The Girl On The Train', opened. This massively popular 2015 novel captivated readers much in the same way that Gone Girl had three years earlier, cementing the genre of female based thrillers with confidence.

'The Girl On The Train' gives us Rachel, a complex and flawed female protagonist embroiled in a mysterious thriller with strange twists, unexpected turns and surrounded by characters in whom she has little faith. That lack of faith extends especially to herself. Dogged by disappointment and loss, personal failure and alcoholism Rachel witnesses something truly dreadful but cannot remember, due to her regular alcohol fuelled black outs. Piecing together what has happened becomes her obsessive focus as the journey of the play unfolds.

Now this is not an easy play to stage; short scenes and multiple changing locations from a dank, dark and threatening railway station underpass to comfortable middle-class homes or the sad, chaotic, one bedroomed flat of a functioning alcoholic. It demands good design and Ian Scullion’s set is clever, well executed and superbly effective. The exterior train station location is the central hub of the set. It is cold, dark, damp, vandalised and threatening.

Lighting projections and smoke effect are used very well to create that sense of foreboding and feeling that nothing good can happen in such an environment. Using three triangular prisms, effective lighting design and a team of well-trained stage managers, the action smoothly moves from one location to another; we are quickly transferred out of subway style surroundings and into the smart, stylish living room of a Victorian terraced house as the prisms rotate.

This play demands a lot of the ever-present leading role of Rachel. She is a clever and complex woman. Strong yet vulnerable, clever yet foolish, sharp yet dulled by life. Ruth Moore as Rachel leads this cast with an assured hand. In a well-judged, nicely paced and nuanced performance Moore brings Rachel and her flawed life to the fore with skill.

Scarlet Newton as the tragic, selfish, emotionally scarred Megan gave a strong contrasting performance, handling the moving tale of the loss of her child especially well. This played nicely against the calm, supportive therapist Kamal, played with subtlety by Sanjiv Joshi

Supported by a well-cast company with good rapport and pace, tensions rise, curiosity overwhelms, instincts react and gradually the awful truth emerges.

Direction is well judged and utilises the design to good effect. Flashbacks are staged well and key moments were given sensitive handling.  

All in all this is a good production of a difficult play which creates a great atmosphere, has imaginative staging and is really an enjoyable night out.

Reviewer - Louise Kershaw

on - 15.1.24