Samantha Womack The former EastEnder is heading to the Dublin stage with The Girl on the Train. Jess O Sullivan sits down for a chat
Ex- EastEnders star Samantha Womack takes on her most challenging role to date as she stars in the stage adaptation of The Girl on the Train. She talks to Jess O Sullivan about the dangers of obsessing with other people’s lives
When The Girl on the Train dominated the bestseller list in 2015, it wasn’t so much that it was a great murder mystery, as that author Paula Hawkins gave us a complicated protagonist who was the very embodiment of most people’s worst fears. Thirtysomething Rachel Watson was an alcoholic – lonely, pitied, divorced, childless and recently fired with nothing to do but spy on the lives of ‘the perfect couple’ from the titular train. Emily Blunt took on the part in the movie that followed, and now Samantha Womack is stepping into Rachel’s shoes for the stage adaptation in Dublin. This will be her second time playing at the theatre as she played Morticia in The Addams Family in 2017, a very different role from this one.
Word of mouth about the play has been effusive, even for those who have read and seen both previous iterations and Samantha believes that this is because the audience can get swept up in the insanity and confusion of the action and tension on stage. “We’ve had people coming to see the play who are avid fans of the book and they’ve tweeted at the interval to say, ‘I know I’ve read the book but I have no idea what is happening in the second act.’ And I think that’s because it feels very different. Yes there’s a murder that takes place in it, but really it’s a dark play about coercive control,” she explains. “The idea that somebody could be so controlled and so manipulated that they start to lose their mind.”
Samantha explains that the stage offers a way for us to get into Rachel’s mind and play with the characters, even the dead ones, more so than you can in the book. “Stylistically they have come up with a very metaphorical set, with pieces gliding in and out like parts of Rachel’s mind, as she tries to fit this mad jigsaw together. Then it’s got dark comedy, which you wouldn’t expect but that’s because Rachel is an absolute lunatic. There’s an anti-hero in her, because when she’s drunk there are no boundaries. Then you’ve got this thing of dealing with people who have died – the living inhabiting the space on the stage with the dead, which you can do with a play, but you can’t do that with a film.”
One element of the play that really resonates with Samantha is how it is also about the fascination we can have with other people’s lives, particularly now with social media. She draws a fitting comparison between how Rachel sits on the train looking through people’s back windows, fantasising, to how people use Instagram. “We’re go through back windows into people’s lives – it just happens to be through a phone – and fixating on them, because don’t forget we choose who we follow. So if you have insecurity about how you look, you tend to obsess about the people you are following who look perfect. You almost feed your own angst by surrounding yourself with the images that feed your paranoia. Rachel is so damaged, and yet is fascinated by what she sees as the perfect life of another family. I think that really strikes a chord because I think there’s a disconnect at the moment with people feeling present in their own lives.”
Samantha, who has two children with her husband, fellow actor Mark Womack, can even see how her teenage daughter is affected by social media. “I’ve got a 14 year old daughter who is incredibly smart, but also sensitive like most teenagers. Instagram is just images with very little context – a bland print of what appears to be somebody’s life. Of course we know pictures are misleading, but looking at everyone’s life through this very strange looking glass is completely unhealthy. So I tell her it’s all about moderation, about being kinder to ourselves, to stop torturing ourselves, about what we think other people have. It is about trying to be present and to put the phone down.”
This is a rule that Samantha herself tries to follow while she’s on tour, because touring can make her feel quite removed from the people she loves, but she doesn’t believe that social media is the answer. “On tour social media can be the only access to friends and family. It’s very easy to get on the phone for two hours before bed and see what everyone is up to, because there’s a certain disconnect when you’re on tour, but I’m trying really hard to manage that because I think in some ways you stop seeing the cities that you’re in, and you become a bit disorientated.” Also although she loves playing such a complicated character as Rachel, she reveals it can take its toll. “I’ve never been as physically spent by a character. It’s a bit like hosting a lunatic. She kind of comes into your body for a couple of hours in the evening, and I’m really happy to get her out of my skin after two hours.” Over the months she has had to learn to manage letting go of the character once the curtain comes down. “At the start I’d go out and have a drink and be quite social, but of course that made me more tired the next day. And even if you’re just having a glass of wine in the evening, and you’re doing that five days a week there’s a kind of melancholy that sets in and that’s kind of dangerous playing a character like Rachel. You don’t want the lines to get blurred. I realised that I needed to stay really healthy, body and mind. I’m starting to learn now that actually it’s about getting out and not really thinking about her until I get to her in the evening, otherwise she just sits like a ghost on top of my shoulder for the day.” With that said, we cannot wait to meet Samantha’s version of Rachel Watson, the girl on the train. The Girl on the Train is at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin from June 3-8. See bordgaisenergytheatre.ie for more information
I’ve never been as physically spent by a character. It’s a bit like hosting a lunatic
We’re a very good team and so he’s not taking any work for the first two weeks in June so I can settle into my show