The Girl On The Train: The Play

by Rachel Wagstaff (Adapter), Duncan Abel (Adapter), Paula Hawkins (Creator)

Rachel Watson longs for a different life. Her only escape is the perfect couple she watches through the train window every day, happy and in love. Or so it appears. When Rachel learns that the woman she's been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, she finds herself as a witness and even a suspect in a thrilling mystery in which she will face bigger revelations than she could ever have anticipated.

Adapted from Paula Hawkins' novel - an international phenomenon selling over twenty million copies worldwide - this gripping new play will keep you guessing until the final moment.

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction, Plays, Mystery Thriller, Mystery, Thriller

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2024

About the author

Rachel Wagstaff wrote the book for the multi-award winning musical Flowers for Mrs Harris (Best Musical, UK Theatre Awards 2016), which transferred to Chichester Festival Theatre, directed by Daniel Evans, in September 2018 after a run at the Sheffield Crucible. Her critically acclaimed adaptation of Birdsong opened in the West End, directed by Trevor Nunn, and enjoyed four UK tours with the Original Theatre Company and Birdsong Productions.

With Duncan Abel, she adapted Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, which had a record-breaking UK tour and West End run in 2019 and her new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d toured the UK produced by the Wales Millennium Centre and Wiltshire Creative.

For radio, Rachel adapted Sebastian Faulks’ novel The Girl at the Lion d’Or for a five part series for Woman’s Hour on Radio Four, transmitted in 2009. Her Afternoon Play When I Lost You, also co-written with Duncan Abel, was transmitted on Radio Four in July 2013.

Moonshadow, the musical she co-wrote with Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), opened at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010, and then was produced at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne in June 2012. That Girl was produced by DryWrite at the Soho Theatre in June 2012. Rachel also wrote the book for the original musical Only the Brave, which opened at the Wales Millennium Centre in March 2016, with music composed by Matthew Brind.

Reviews

[Ayushi Dayal]

3.6
I couldn't put down this book. Usually I know what is going to happen but this book kept me on edge till the very end.

[Rupty]

it was a fun read. Coincidentally I read it on a train and couldn't do anything else untill i was done with it. However, I found the last part totally unpredictable which I loved. I wanted more.

[Louna]

extrêmement meh

[Courtney]

I like how the play has stylized elements for the different elements, but I think it's going to be more impactful seeing it versus just reading it.

[Alif]

i read this only because the original book wasn’t holding my attention and i’m glad i didn’t try hard because the plot was mehhh!! i liked the ending though! Anna believing Rachel and then Rachel killing Tom! i was like this was good so lets read the original detailed ending but the ending of the book was also mehhh!! :/

[rina]

yikes

[T.J. Ryan]

Not as good as the source material or even the film adaptation. The cast list is small and practical for a stage production and the scenes are dialogue driven which works well. However, my issue was one critical element - The Girl on the TRAIN and there is not one scene set on the train.

The main theme of isolation and voyeurism is a crucial factor in all three female leads, but instead this is bypassed with quite uncomfortable forced interactions with characters who didn't even speak to each other in the first half of the book. Rachel's characterisation was probably the biggest disappointment, as she did come across as obsessive and in need of attention – The character was much more complex Paula Hawkins' book, but instead she came across as quite irritating.

I had hopes for this script, but it may look better on stage – only time will tell.

[Teigan Beck]

This book was overall good. I agree with another review that I just saw that you have “to get past that most of the story is told by a drunk who is missing half of the important details”. And listening to it in audio book, I was sometimes like what is going on… But the unique plot and the mental health issues made this book quite interesting.

[Izzy]

This was a play based off a book that I’ve had in my tbr for a while. I loved that I was able to read the whole story so quickly and it kept me interested and intrigued the whole time. Lots of plot twists and new evidence coming to light. Makes me want to read the full book in the future and have even more depth of the characters and more description.

[Annu]

WOW!!! this was an awesome book, fast paced and a page turner. Half way thru the book was difficult to put down, the ending gave me chills. Ususally I'm good at guessing who the murderer is but in this book it was like a punch in the face! unexpected! Beautifully written!!!

[Paola Matos]

I’m starting to think I’m not the biggest fan of mystery. This was good, again everyone is psycho. But idk the suspense of the entire book just to have to wait till the end is frustrating to me. It felt repetitive until the end. I’ll watch the movie though

[Rao]

Excellent

[Raleigh]

Quick read, thrilling and entertaining

[Michael Sanderson-green]

Very enjoyable to read over zoom , fast paced and good to listen to. I could see some innovative ways to develop this to an interesting stage play .

[Margaret Newby]

Well done,a good read

[Akash]

Simply best thriller.. But kindoff okayish to me becoz of all the thriller movie watched can guess easily what happened next even still hooked me all night

[The Book Barbie]

Standard mainstream thriller book

[James Haig]

Captivating if not a little slow, did enjoy it in the end though, very thought provoking and i liked that

[Lilly Thomas]

Went by really slow. Main character probably needs different therapy.

[Jamie]

Wow what a ride!

[FINAL GIRL]

shit was batshit dude

[Taylor]

3.5/5

[Kaye Schmitz]

Literally every character makes horrible life choices. How not to do adulting 101.

[Dom Fisher]

Slow start but eventually I got into it. I predicted the ending.

[Punam Majhi]

Oh, what a plot twist!

[Alisa Mirabella]

An interesting story but super hard to stage as a play

[Mary]

I wasn't too keen on the book, and this (while adapted well) retains all the faults of the book. It is rather fragmented and technically complex as a play.

[Ysobel Lloyd Payne]

Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss before it was cool