Flat Rock Playhouse Production Plays WhoDunit with a Cast of Unreliable Characters

A Review by Steve Wong
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There’s something missing in The Girl On The Train, the current theatrical production at Flat Rock Playhouse.

You can’t depend on what the main character Rachel says: She’s a lying drunk with alcohol-induced memory blackouts, emotional problems, and delusional relationships. And as far as the rest of the six characters (with the exception of the cop), well, you can’t really trust them either. One is an accidental baby killer, most are adulterers, a therapist who crosses the professional line, and a gaslighter. Someone in this dysfunctional party of five has killed one of their own.

So, if you get a little confused watching this modern-day whodunit, don’t sweat it. Keeping the audience guessing is all part of the theatrical experience that tells the story of a woman who spends a rollercoaster week trying to fill in the informational gaps of a murder that she may have committed.

The Girl On The Train is very unlike most plays that command the stage at Flat Rock Playhouse. It is a serious and gritty play, addressing serious topics about modern society. Technology is an important communication tool in this play with foreboding techno music with heavy and driving percussion and repetitive haunting melodies. Creatively controlled lighting draws the eye to what might or might not be important. And, digital projections on multiple moving panels, along with the sound of rattling trains and telling voices, create collages of cubist images that signal flashbacks, headline news, and the rushing commuter train that Rachel rides every day to nowhere. 

Rachel’s daily train rides are the cornerstones of the story. Having lost her job and seemingly most of her mind because of her failure to conceive and divorce, Rachel rides the train to keep voyeuristic tabs on her ex-husband’s new life with a wife and baby and another couple just a few doors down -- Anna and Tom Watson -- whom she fantasizes about being the perfect couple. As the train passes their homes, Rachel spies on everything from domestic baby bliss to romantic encounters of the wrong kind. Oddly enough, she never actually rides the train in the play.

Despite the intended confusion, the play is gripping from the opening scene when Rachel wakes up with a really bad hangover in a wreck of an apartment. She is covered in blood and has a gash on her head, fuzzy as it is. As she tries to remember what happened, she crawls about on the floor in search of clothes and more booze only to barf in a pizza box and then guzzle a warm beer with an all-day vodka chaser. Her mind is awash with partial memories of glass breaking and screams. It sure was nice of her ex-husband to stop by to check on her -- or was it?

As is often the case in modern storytelling, none of the characters is particularly likable -- with the exception of the cop Gaskill, played by Vagabon veteran Scott Treadway. First character introductions to the audience go well enough, but soon enough we learn that everyone has a mean streak that in one way or another strikes their names from the good guy/gal list. Hint: if you get really confused, just pay attention to Gaskill. He’s good at reviewing the situation, something my companion found very helpful.

Playing the besotted ex-wife Rachel is Leslie Collins, who is now in her 11th show at Flat Rock Playhouse. Other shows you may have seen her in include The Unexpected Guest, Cinderella, Leading Ladies, Unnecessary Farce, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Not limited to Western North Carolina, Collins spent more than 20 years in New York City and Los Angeles performing in theatre and television, including national commercials and teaching. Other work has taken her from England to Australia. Collins is put to the test as Rachel, who until the bitter end is a character we find hard to like. She is pitiful, pathetic, desperate, confused, and at times a little scary -- all traits that Collins pulls off with aplomb. I’ll let you, dear theatergoer, decide if Rachel is a character worthy of our sympathies, but Collins is definitely worthy of our admiration as a fine actress doing her job well.

Michael Shenefelt plays Rachel’s ex, Tom, a seemingly stand-up kind of guy of the worst kind.  Gracie Winchester plays his new wife Anna, who has about enough of Rachel’s hysterics and baby-napping. Megan and Scott -- played by Laura Woyasz and William Connell -- are the nice folks a few doors down who seemingly have a great marriage until Megan goes missing, and we find out Scott can be a horn dog and Megan has a very ugly past life. Thrown into the mix is therapist Kamal, played by Jason Rojas. However, he, too, is not above suspicion and a little hanky panky with his clients.

I salute Flat Rock Playhouse for hosting this regional premiere of a play that can be hard to like but certainly demands to be appreciated. It challenges our sense of right and wrong, our ability to discern the truth from lies, and our innate want for neat and tidy storylines. As we look desperately for pieces of truths that we hope will make sense of the horrors of life, we might fail to see the screaming voids that actually tell us what is true.

The Girl On The Train was first presented as a best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins in 2015. It was released as a movie in 2016 starring Emily Blunt. Its first appearance as a play was in 2018 in England, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel. Since then, it has played to mixed reviews in the United States.