The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins, Rachel Wagstaff, Duncan Abel

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781786825131
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

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. 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.

Act Two

SCENE ONE

Darkness. The sound of magpies chattering and calling. We hear a distant song sung by school children:

One for sorrow two for joy,

Three for a girl four a for a boy,

Five for silver six for gold,

Seven for a secret, never to be told.

Magpie, magpie why do you sigh,

I sit so alone while the world goes by.

This should repeat until the sound of a passing train sounds it out. The train fades into the distance. Lights up.

Police tape has been stretched around the area of wasteland where the pile of stones was. There is now a shallow grave. Two forensic officers in white overalls bag up things from the site.

GASKILL stands near the grave. RACHEL stands back.

GASKILL: Right. You wanted to know what happened to Megan Hipwell. There you go. Yards from her own home.

GASKILL trying to read RACHEL’s reaction.

RACHEL: (Gathering herself.) Where’ve they taken her?

GASKILL: There’ll be an autopsy.

RACHEL: How did she look?

A look from GASKILL. How d’you think she looked?

GASKILL: She’d had a blow to the head – same as you. Coincidence, I suppose.

RACHEL: I’ve never seen a dead body.

You must get to see it a lot, right? Is it really gory?

GASKILL: Nah, not always. Some fellas look better dead than they ever did alive. I’d never seen my poor old dad look so happy. Or maybe it was relief. Oh well.

RACHEL: Have you found anything here? Evidence, or…?

GASKILL: It’s more what we haven’t found. Megan was wearing a hat when she went missing. A grey beret. Very stylish. If we can locate that… But for now, my focus is on potential witnesses.

RACHEL: Surely there must be something here. That’s what you do, isn’t it? You find a dropped earring, or a torn piece of clothing, or – Isn’t that what they’re doing? (Pointing to the forensic officers.)

GASKILL: Yep. We’ve been up and down the tracks here all morning. I found a dead magpie just up the way there.

RACHEL momentarily surprised at the mention of magpies, again.

GASKILL: They have funerals for their dead, the magpies. Did you know that?

RACHEL: No.

GASKILL: One of the forensic lot told me. One magpie sees the dead one and calls a funeral song. Others come and join, apparently. A proper funeral.

RACHEL: Perhaps it’s to do with survival…

GASKILL: What isn’t?

RACHEL: And what about her handbag, her pockets, her phone, that sort of thing?

GASKILL: (Not giving anything away.) Let’s get away from here.

GASKILL walks in the direction of the underpass. RACHEL hesitates, but follows.

GASKILL: Now, when I spoke to you last week, you were telling me about the black holes in your memory. Well, now you’re one of my main…

RACHEL: Suspects!?

GASKILL: Witnesses. I need to see if we can step a little further into those black holes, clarify exactly what you saw that Saturday night. Here’s the underpass you got your blow to your head, yes?

RACHEL suddenly uncomfortable without fully understanding why. She stares at the tunnel.

RACHEL: Can’t we go somewhere else?

GASKILL suspicious.

GASKILL: Does being here bring anything back?

RACHEL: (A moment of self-doubt.) I…

GASKILL: Rachel?

RACHEL: I don’t think it’s as easy as that. And you don’t believe anything I tell you anyway.

GASKILL: You were right about Kamal Abdic. Megan’s DNA was all over his house. They were more than counsellor/ client. He’s admitted as much now. That was thanks...