Reviewer: Chloe Cerva
I don’t know about you, but I have, in the past, woken up from a drunken night with only fragments of my memory. Maybe you remember where you were, but nottt quite what happened. Maybe you wonder if you said something you shouldn’t have, or did something you can’t take back. Or maybe you’re just hoping you didn’t text anyone something embarrassing. For Rachel, those questions take a much freakier turn when she wakes up to a detective at her door and a mystery to solve.
The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller that keeps you questioning what you remember and what is actually real. This production at Pit & Balcony did a wonderful job of creating that uneasy atmosphere and keeping the audience piecing together the mystery right alongside Rachel. I did not realize I was munching down all of my popcorn at the edge of my seat until it was all gone (they also have very good popcorn at Pit and Balcony.)
With a small cast, every character has an important role to play, and the entire ensemble handled the material very well. Arlo Welser, who played Rachel Watson, carried much of the production and had an enormous amount of dialogue to memorize. She did an excellent job maintaining Rachel’s emotional complexity while navigating the twists and turns of the story. Watching her move through Rachel’s fragmented drunken memories while still keeping the audience curious was one of the highlights of the production.
I also really enjoyed the way Megan’s story was presented. Rather than simply giving the audience all of the information at once, we get glimpses of what may have happened to her through Rachel’s perspective and roleplaying. It made the mystery feel much more personal and pushed one of the play’s most interesting ideas! How easy it is for us to construct an entire story about someone based on only the small pieces we see.
The staging was another aspect that stood out to me. I was particularly impressed by how quickly and smoothly the set could change while Rachel remained seated on the train during the interludes. Those transitions helped create the feeling that Rachel was constantly moving between memories, observations, and different pieces of the story without bringing the momentum of the production to a halt.
The technical elements added a lot to the atmosphere as well. I especially enjoyed the lighting and sound, which helped establish tension and made the transitions between scenes feel natural. The decision to have the cast perform with British accents also helped create a cohesive world. There is just something about a British accent that can make even the most suspicious conversation sound very serious.
The Girl on the Train really succeeds because it makes you question how well you really know the people around you, and how much of what you believe is based on assumptions. With a committed cast, strong technical elements, creative staging, and a mystery that continually unfolds, this production makes for an engaging and suspenseful night of theater in Saginaw, Michigan. I caught the show this past weekend but you have three opportunities to see it this upcoming weekend on Friday the 18th, Saturday 19th as a matinee, and Sunday the 20th as a matinee! Now go solve that mystery!
Source: https://www.saginawartmuseum.org/review/please-mind-the-memory-gap/