Strangers on a Train, New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham - review

This particularly applies if you have an irksome ex (who doesn’t) and the stranger happens to be a charming, eccentric but slightly sinister type.

There are certainly lessons to be learned from this gripping thriller which has opened at the New Alexandra Theatre.

Strangers on a Train was Patricia Highsmith’s first novel, published in 1950 and so well received that it was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock the following year leading to even greater success.

As you might expect from a story adopted by the master of suspense, this is a tense and shocking tale of murder, intrigue and intimidation.

And it is made all the more thrilling by the powerful performance of Chris Harper as the charismatic yet quite psychotic Charles Bruno.

The plot sees two complete strangers – Bruno and Guy Haines - get into a conversation on a train (as the name suggests) and agree after one too many drinks that they will kill a problematic person for each other.

When architect Haines’ estranged wife is murdered, Bruno appears on the scene and demands his father is killed as per the agreement.

Best known for his recent role in Coronation Street, Harper is incredibly menacing as the charming, unpredictable and quite insane mummy’s boy Bruno who is desperate to wrestle ‘his money’ from the hands of his father.

He relentlessly torments Haines until the broken and unwitting partner in crime can take no more. Jack Ashton, vicar Tom Hereward in Call the Midwife, gives a depressingly convincing performance as the tortured architect spiralling deeper and deeper into despair.

The perfect murder, however, looks set to be thwarted by a friend of Bruno’s father - private detective Arthur Gerard. The suspicious ex-cop is played by John Middleton who for many years was Ashley Thomas in the soap Emmerdale.

Having a compelling and exciting plot and offering some captivating performances, particularly by the two lead characters, the production is marred only slightly by the set.

Large imposing grey ‘walls’ across the front of the stage shift (not quite seamlessly) from side to side to reveal various changing scenes. However, too often, if the action is off centre, the actors cannot be seen by large sections of the audience. This was a little frustrating.

That said, the train scene was well done and the action does switch swiftly between the two characters’ homes as well as workplaces, bars and hotels.

Guaranteed to ‘chill and thrill’, this riveting production of Strangers on a Train will have you on the edge of your seat until the curtain falls. And it serves as a sobering reminder to us all that you never know who you could be sitting next to on the train – do not engage!

Runs at the Birmingham theatre until Saturday.