After several years away, former Alley Theatre Resident Company member Emily Neves has returned to Houston to join the cast of the psychological thriller The Girl on the Train opening this Friday.
As the Alley Theatre’s Artistic Director Rob Melrose has said, the play based on the book by Paula Hawkins and the 2016 movie that followed is a departure from the Alley’s usual Summer Chills offerings of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie mysteries both in tone and time period.
In this modern day story set in the suburbs of London, Neves plays the part of Megan Hipwell, the young woman who has a seemingly idyllic marriage until she goes missing. Resident Acting Company Member Elizabeth Bunch plays the main character Rachel Watson who rides the train past her former house every day and ends up watching Megan and her husband Scott (Dylan Godwin) obsessively idealizing their marriage.
Megan is a neighbor of Tom and his second wife Anna. Tom is Rachel’s ex-husband and Megan lives two doors down. She moved into that house after Rachel and Tom divorced so she and Rachel have never met.
Megan, who serves as a narrator along with Rachel, is an artist and a gallerist. As Neves explains: “Before the events of the play she ran a gallery in the little suburb where they all live. The gallery has since closed. She is an abstract painter, very artistic and bohemian. I find her to be very deep and soulful. I have a great affection for her.”
And then Megan disappears. Rachel tries to sort through the puzzle of what happened to Megan but her alcoholism and blackouts make her unsure of her own memories and observations.
Other cast members in the two-act include company members Michelle Elaine as Anna Watson, Chris Hutchison as Tom Watson, David Rainey as D.I. Gaskill, and Christopher Salazar as Kamal Abdic. Casey Stangl directs this adaptation by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel.
During her time away Neves relocated in Dallas where she worked full time for a company as a writer for anime dubs. She is also a voice actor “for some video games and mostly for anime. I’m up to around 300 roles at this point.”
She left her Dallas job in October after deciding she wanted to do theater again. She ran into the Alley’s now former Associate Artistic Director Brandon Weinbrenner at the Orange Show Gala and told him she was ready to return.
Asked why the story on The Girl on the Train continues to draw readers and audiences, Neves says:
“I think people root for Rachel because they see her struggling, they see her in pain . And I think that they want to know whether this character they care for did this terrible thing. So they’re hooked in.
“Her being an unreliable narrator because of her dependence on alcohol, I think people just are fascinated by that. We’re on the edge of our seats. What actually happened that night?
“These two women, even though they never met, there’s this really strong connection between them in the play. It’s one of my favorite parts about the play. In fact all of the connections between the women in the play are in my opinion kind of the strongest part of the story. “
Performances are scheduled for July 24 through August 30 at 7:30 p.m.Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and 7 p.m. Sundays at alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $36-$118.
