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Book review Train hits the buffers

SUSAN DARLINGTON sees an ill-conceived stage adaptation of a best-selling thriller

The Girl On The Train
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

AFTER a lacklustre film adaptation, some critics have speculated that it’s impossible to adapt Paula Hawkins’s best-selling psychological thriller. Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel’s stage version of The Girl On The Train will do little to contradict that view.

The three narrative viewpoints in the book have been streamlined into just that of “Waitrose drinker” Rachel (Jill Halfpenny), who witnesses a shocking event in the backyard of a couple that she’s idealised from the carriage of a train during her daily commute.

The reduction in narratives undermines the unreliable witness element of the plot, detracts from its feminist intent and turns it into a straightforward whodunnit.

Yet, with underdeveloped characterisation, more plot holes than a string vest and misplaced humour, the production lacks the tension that’s required to make the audience care about the crime that Rachel is trying to solve while also uncovering truths about her own life.

The staging is visually stylish, with Lizzie Powell’s lighting indicating the point of focus in Lily Arnold’s single-set design. Shaped like a train carriage, it’s dominated by a whirlpool image with a void at its centre — a useful if at times clumsy metaphor for the emptiness in the lives of the characters.

Halfpenny gives a solid performance throughout. But overall this is one train that most audience members wouldn’t complain about if it were cancelled.

Runs until June 18, box office: wyp.org.uk

 

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