Review: Actors' Playhouse takes audiences on a thrill ride with ‘The Girl on the Train'

Miami Herald

27-05-2025

There's something about the intimate Balcony Theatre at the Actors' Playhouse that lends itself to a good thriller. In May of 2022, it was British mystery writer Agatha Christie's 'Murder on the Orient Express' that stood out as the perfect Spring whodunnit. Three years later, Artistic Director David Arisco returns to the British thriller, this time with 'The Girl on the Train,' based on the novel by Paula Hawkins.
Many will be familiar with 'The Girl on the Train' from the 2015 bestselling mystery novel or the 2016 film starring Emily Blunt, which moved the locale to the United States from Hawkins' England. The play adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel stays true to Hawkins' setting and is currently on a UK and Ireland tour through August of 2025. But South Florida audiences needn't go any further than Coral Gables where Arisco and a cast of professional regional actors bring the complex drama to life.
Falling apart after the breakup of her marriage, Rachel Watson (Gaby Tortoledo) is an alcoholic. She's 'The Girl' who rides the train into London every day passing by the house she shared with her husband Tom (Iain Batchelor), now inhabited by his new wife, Anna (Krystal Millie Valdes), and the couple's baby, Evie – something that adds to Rachel's torment since she was unable to have a child. In a house a few doors down, she catches glimpses of a couple – embracing, kissing – on a balcony. She's given them names – Jess and Jason, fantasizing about their perfect lives together, the one she believed she had, then lost. 'Don't you ever see someone and think, if I could step out of my shoes and into theirs, just for a day . . .' says Rachel about her imagining the couple's lives.
One day, she spies 'Jess' – real name Megan Hipwell (Allie Beltran) – on the terrace in a real-life situation that breaks the spell. The fantasy shattered, Rachel spins off into a rage. When Megan suddenly disappears, Rachel shows up to the husband, Scott's (Ryan Didato) door claiming to be a close friend of his missing wife.
Detective D.I. Gaskill (Gregg Weiner) tracks down Rachel at her fleabag flat – he's questioning her about the disappearance since she was spotted stumbling around a tunnel where Megan may have last been seen. Meanwhile, Rachel has a gash on her forehead and is unable to recall – because of one of her drunken blackouts – how it happened.
Rounding out the cast of characters is Megan's therapist Kamal Abdic (Nate Promkul). Rachel will visit him, too, engaging him in her web.
The minimalist setting by Brandon M. Newton consists of a backdrop that resembles puzzle pieces, a constant reminder of Rachel's jumbled memory. Different areas of the stage are playing areas for locales – Rachel's untidy flat; the Hipwell's house (with a bar cart as its centerpiece); Tom and his new wife's place; the two chairs that represent the therapist's office; and the detective's workspace.
Drawn along the floor is a train track pattern, skewed in different ways and a constant reminder of Rachel's disjointed perspective.
Sound design by Reidar Sorensen adds to the tension with the realistic train horn blaring at key points; when Rachel is in her flat in her drunken stupor, a deafening rock music soundtrack whips her into a frenzy.
Lighting designer Eric Nelson has created a hazy quality for the 'lost memory' play. His use of a red light that comes from the side of the stage in between the curtains is haunting as Rachel tries to recreate what happened on the night in question. At other times, lighting choices are reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock film, sepia tone and black and white. The lighting also helps to mark transitions from one location to another, and dialogue from the past and the present.
'The Girl on the Train' as a book and a film benefited from narrative scene setting and voice over. The play adaptation is more difficult because it relies heavily on the bare bones of the storytelling. Arisco allows the suspense of the play to unfold strategically. The pacing is what creates the tension – at times slow and cautious, at others barreling down the tracks like a locomotive.
As the alcoholic amateur sleuth, Tortoledo takes us along for the ride – we get caught up in her confusion and self-doubt, with the actress drawing sympathy yet, at times, conjuring loathing for her recklessness. With so many armchair detectives who have been created from the pop culture true crime phenomenon, Tortoledo gives Rachel an infusion of the 'mom next door' who has set out to crack the case – putting together clues and meddling in places she probably shouldn't be. The actress also never gives a portrayal of the slurring, caricatured drunk, but is utterly convincing that her drinking goes beyond the bottle.
Batchelor captures the dual personality of Tom – nice guy on the surface, pathological, abusive liar in every other crevice. Beltran's Megan is at her best when she's retelling a tragic past, and Didato, who was so compelling in Zoetic Stage's 'The Pillowman,' brings to Scott a slow burn of intensity.
Promkul as the empathetic therapist is believable as the man caught in the middle. Valdes plays new mom Anna as a woman yearning for an idyllic life free of the tribulations of her new husband's ex, Rachel. Weiner adds a sly humor to what could otherwise be a dullish gumshoe.
The decision to have the cast speak in British dialect is appropriate for the setting and isn't a distraction; to each actor, it seems natural. (Cast member Batchelor, a native of the U.K., doubled as dialect coach.)
Ellis Tillman's costumes, especially Rachel's long dowdy sweater and Megan's wispy dresses, are appropriately realistic.
Adding realism, too, are Nicole Perry as intimacy director and Lee Soroko as fight director.
Fans of the film and the book will find the Actors' Playhouse rendering of the stage adaptation a different take on the story. For those who have never seen 'The Girl on the Train,' it's a great theatrical ride.
If you go:
WHAT: 'The Girl on the Train'
WHERE: Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables
WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday through June 8.
COST: $50, $60, and $70, weekdays; $65, $75 and $85, weekends.
INFORMATION: 305-444-9293 or actorsplayhouse.org
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