Well done to The Barn Theatre in Cirencester who have triumphed yet again! Their stage production of the The Girl on the Train is superb!

Having read the book by Paula Hawkins and then watched the film, I couldn’t imagine how the plot could be transported to the theatre and the characters be portrayed with any reality on the stage.

Needless to say, The Barn did not disappoint. The characters were well-developed and well-acted; the sets were imaginative and really made you feel that you were on a train or in an underpass; and the sound effects so realistic it made your blood curdle. Was it my imagination that the air-con in the theatre was turned up when the police in forensic white suits were outside looking for the body? It certainly went very cold in the auditorium, but I may have been so deeply engrossed in the story that I really did feel that I was actually there combing the area for clues!

 The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller written in 2015 about divorced alcoholic Rachel Watson fantasising about a couple she glimpses from the train window on her daily commute. The couple appear to have the ideal life, one that Rachel wants for herself. One day, Rachel witnesses something that doesn’t quite fit with her idea of the couple’s perfect life and gets embroiled in a murder mystery that has long-reaching consequences.

Since her divorce from her husband Tom, Rachel’s life has become a train crash where she’s turned to the bottle for comfort as a release from the heartache she feels at her loss of her husband and home. However, Rachel’s inebriation causes her to struggle to remember who she is, where she’s been and what she’s done.

Offsetting the underlying trepidation of the who-dunnit, there are several high spots of comic relief! Witty one-liners from Gaskill the Detective and the drunken antics from Rachel relieve the tension for split seconds before the audience is thrown back into the low-lit and shadowy scenes in the underpass.

Gemma Yates-Round who played Rachel is brilliant. She holds the storyline together even though her character is falling apart! Tom, played by Brinsley Terence is totally believable as Rachel’s ex-husband who is always there to pick up the pieces of Rachel’s fragmented life whilst double-dipping into his new life with wife, Anna (Emily Tucker) and baby Evie.

All the cast are well selected and fit into character perfectly: Sophie Walter as Megan Hipwell; Claudius Peters as Scott Hipwell; Kareem Nasif as Kamal Abdic and Nick Read as Detective Inspector Gaskill.

This is a production not to be missed! The Girl on the Train is at The Barn Theatre until 29^th October, so there is still plenty of time to go and experience theatre at its best!

For tickets, contact 01285 648255 or boxoffice@barntheatre.org.uk. Why not make it a special evening with dinner at Teatro Bar & Restaurant either before or after the performance? Book a table at Teatro: 01285 648238, info@teatro-ciren.co.uk.

Images by: Alex Tabrizi