Review: The Girl on the Train by Nina Jervis-Green

May 7, 2025

Thanks to Nina Jervis-Green from www.ninathewriter.com for this review.

Unfortunately, my overriding impression of The Girl on the Train is how unrelentingly smoky it was. I found the amount of billowing smoke so unbearable that I ended up leaving the theatre 30 minutes before the show was due to end.

(I became That Person: the one who squeezes noisily past a row of knees mid-show, coughing all the way. I attracted plenty of huffs and eye-rolls, as well I should!)

It’s worth mentioning that I’ve got an extra-sensitive nervous system. It’s also worth mentioning that my husband David, who saw the show with me, stayed until the end, though he admitted that the smoke was “a bit much”. Think cheesy 1980’s rock video and you’ve got the picture – which is a shame, because the show itself is very good.

As you might have guessed, it’s based on the bestselling thriller-novel by Paula Hawkins. I haven’t read the book, but I have seen the 2016 film, which is set in New York (the book is set in London). So, having prepared myself for a barrage of fake American accents, I was pleasantly surprised.

The story centres around Rachel Watson, whose life has spiralled out of control following a painful divorce. Her husband has remarried and started a family, and she’s been drinking heavily to cope. This is causing worrying memory lapses – and then the police turn up on her doorstep.

It turns out that the woman Rachel has been watching through her train window every day has gone missing. Her name is Megan Hipwell… though Rachel thinks of her as ‘Jess’, imagining her perfect life, and her perfect husband, ‘Jason’, whom she also sees through the train window.

What follows is a twisty-turny and hugely entertaining tale, in which nothing is quite as it seems on the surface. The dialogue is pacy and surprisingly funny, in that wry, world-weary way that’s uniquely British, so was missing entirely from the film. Some of the best lines go to Paul McEwan as D.I. Gaskill, the hard-bitten policeman leading the search for Megan.

The performances are all top-notch; particularly from Louisa Lytton as Rachel, and Samuel Collings as Scott Hipwell, or ‘Jason’, Megan’s husband. Megan herself is played by Natalie Dunne in a series of moving and ethereal (read: smoky) flashbacks, and we soon discover that her life was far from the perfect fantasy Rachel has imagined.

The set works beautifully. It’s sparse, atmospheric, and adaptable; transformed by a seamless ensemble cast into a range of settings, with a screen showcasing different window-views at key points. The sound effects are perfectly ominous: clanging trains, shattering glass and loud bangs accentuate the plot at just the right moments. Given that I already knew how the story would end (which was lucky in terms of having to leave before the show finished!) I surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The Girl on the Train is well-paced, well-told story and the stage adaptation really works.

David hadn’t seen the film, and declared himself both surprised and satisfied by the ending. I just wish I could have stayed to see it for myself.