Whodunit?
Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre Scores with a Fine Mystery
By Tina Wyngate
“The Girl on the Train” is just the kind of play you want when you think of attending the theater. It’s a play you can sink your teeth into, a murder-mystery/whodunit with the sort of drawing room drama you yearn for as a theater goer, not just something musical or comedic. Not that there is anything wrong with musicals or comedies – but this is real stagecraft, with personalities that reveal themselves and plot twists that keep you on your toes.
Left: Gaby Tortoledo and Iain Batch elor in The Girl On The Train at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle T heatre. Photo by Alberto Romeu
Right : Gregg Weiner and Gaby Tortole do in The Girl On The Train at Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Th eatre. Photo by Alberto Romeu
If you read books or love the cinema, you’ll know that “The Girl on the Train” was both a book and a movie. I did not read the book, but I did see the movie starring Emily Blunt. I guess it was too many years ago, because all I remember is Blunt sitting on a train and then someone going missing. What intrigued me about the play was how you transpose that, from a moving railroad car to a static stage. The play does that with remarkable ease and loses none of the drama or intrigue in the process.
The story is set in England, and so the actors do their best to carry on with a British accent. I might have cast them as Americans, but the effort to be authentic is appreciated. Gaby Tortoledo has no problem with channeling a British personality, despite her Venezuelan upbringing, and carries the lead role with such aplomb that you forget she’s acting. As the uncertain alcoholic Rachel Watson, she pulls off a wonderfully nuanced performance as a highly complex character. Stalker? Killer? Hero? You decide.
Without giving away the plot, “The Girl on the Train” is an Agatha Christie-caliber mystery about a missing person and a lonely, obsessed voyeur who quickly becomes enmeshed in her life. The missing girl comes to life in flashbacks, portrayed in gliding ghostly entrances by Allie Beltran. And then there is intrigue, subplots, red herrings, infidelities – the usual stuff of a good murder mystery.
“The Girl on the Train” showcases the dramatic talent of Actors’ Playhouse, and shows you why play director David Arisco has been the company’s artistic director for so many years. It’s what good theater is all about, and more than worthy of an evening out.
The Girl On The Train
May 14 – June 8, 2025
$50-$85
actorsplayhouse.org