REVIEW: Strangers On A Train

By Gary Murray

Is there such a thing as ‘the perfect murder‘?

This question is at the heart of Strangers On A Train, brought to the Devonshire Park Theatre by philandben productions.

As they did last year, the company is presenting three plays as part of this season’s Summer Playhouse series.

You might be familiar with Strangers On A Train from the famous 1951 Alfred Hitchcock film. But the play follows the original novel by Patricia Highsmith more closely.

Guy and Bruno, unknown to each other, meet on a train journey. It emerges that Guy is on his way home to try to divorce his unfaithful wife Miriam. Bruno has a father whom he would prefer was out of the way.

Soon Bruno suggests that they murder each other’s ‘problem’ people. After all, they are strangers; who would trace it back to them?  

This production stays faithful to the psychological darkness of the book.

The lighting design (by Doug Morgan) has the gloom of film noir. And designer Andy Newell’s set, with the muted colours of the 1950s, comprises a series of what feel like small rooms, closing in on the protagonists as they rapidly unravel from the consequences of what they have agreed to do.

The cast has some familiar faces from previous productions at the Devonshire Park. Foremost among these is Pete Ashmore. His portrayal of Charles Bruno, a man of brittle energy, is a real tour de force.

Mention too must go to Simon Pothecary as Guy Haines and Lucy-Jane Quinlan as Anne Faulkner, the woman he wants to marry.

It’s an excellent start to the Summer Playhouse series. And we have Bedroom Farce and Murder by Misadventure to look forward to. 

:: Strangers On A Train runs at the Devonshire Park Theatre until Saturday, 28 June. Tickets are available here.

:: The reviewer, a volunteer with Eastbourne Reporter, paid for their own ticket