Giovanna Fletcher is the force the cast orbit around
Paula Hawkins’ blockbuster book Girl On A Train had us all turning pages as we rushed to discover who killed Megan Hipwell. The main suspect was the alcoholic with mental health issues who the police decided had a motive for murder, so we know it is not going to be her, writes Michael Holland.
Rachel Watson had turned to drink when her marriage to Tom had broken up and dropped her into an abyss of torment and jealousy. The need for alcohol to get through the day took its toll, and she eventually lost her job.
Now she needed. something to get her up and out of the house, so Rachel continued to commute to her non-existent job, a train ride where she would stare out of the window and keep a little bit of normality in her life as she sipped on vodka in her water bottle.
Each day as the train travelled past she would watch the goings-on of the house she once lived in with Tom; watch him being happy with Anna and the baby she couldn’t give him. Rachel would also see the happiness of their loved-up neighbours until one day she spied the woman kissing another man—an event that exasperated the paranoia of what went wrong in her marriage.
When she saw a news report about a missing woman and realised it was the neighbour of her ex, she glugged on her wine bottle and let her mind run riot.
We discover that in her drunken states, she would harass Tom and his new wife but then forget everything. It was while in one of her blackouts that Rachel had been creating problems back at her former family home, so her name came up in police investigations.
When being questioned, she could not remember anything, pushing her further and further into the frame. Her world begins to unravel along with the mystery of what happened on that fateful night. Piece by piece, as Rachel endeavours to recall what she did she opens up a Pandora’s Box of nastiness, domestic violence and a catalogue of cheating and beating in that terrace of houses.
A great backdrop of light and sound (Jack Knowles, Elizabeth Purnell, Dan Light) mirrored Rachel’s mind— fuzzy, obscure, manic, confused. But for me there were too many long duologues going over the same thing time and again as Rachel tried to remember that night. Yes, each time we would get a little closer to the truth but any ‘thriller’ aspect of the play kind of died as we slumped back from the edge of our seats. It was the flash and crash of the soundscape kicking back in that returned me to an unbelievable world where an alcoholic with serious mental health problems can solve a complex murder case when a police force can’t.
This adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel is ideal for those who love a good whodunnit but what I took away from this was the old police-are-useless cliché, and all men are bad.
Under excellent direction from Loveday Ingram the cast all perform outstandingly well, with Giovanna Fletcher as Rachel the force that they orbit around.
Churchill Theatre, High Street, Bromley, BR1 1HA until 22nd March.
Booking and full details: churchilltheatre.co.uk
