Theatre News

The Girl on the Train to be adapted for the stage in Leeds

The world premiere production is part of the West Yorkshire Playhouse’s new season

West Yorkshire Playhouse
West Yorkshire Playhouse
(© Anthony Robling)

Paula Hawkins' novel The Girl on the Train, which was made into a hit film starring Emily Blunt, is to be made into a stage production.

Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel adapt the original, which will be directed by Joe Murphy after his production of Woyzeck at the Old Vic. The plot follows what happens when a woman sees what she thinks is a murder from the window of her train. The book was a hit when it was first published in 2015.

Elsewhere in the season, WYP stages a new festival of theatre and dementia called Every Third Minute which will include a new stage adaptation of the best-selling novel Still Alice. The festival runs between 9 February and 31 March. Still Alice is adapted for the stage by Christine Mary Dunford and will star Sharon Small as Alice. It runs from 9 February to 3 March.

Red Ladder Theatre will bring The Damned United back to Leeds in March, following the world premiere of the stage play in 2016. The show will run from 27 March to 7 April and tells the story of Brian Clough's tenure as manager of Leeds United.

Two UK tours kick off at WYP, with James Graham's This House opening at the theatre on 23 February. The show garnered rave reviews during its run at the National Theatre and it's West End transfer. The Proclaimers' musical Sunshine on Leith will also open at West Yorkshire Playhouse from 20 April to 19 May in a new production, directed by James Brining. The show features songs from The Proclaimers and tells of families and young people living and loving in Edinburgh.

Ramps on the Moon's production of Timberlake Wertenbaker's superb work Our Country's Good will run at the West Yorkshire Playhouse from 11 to 21 April. In June, James Brining will also co direct with Amy Leach and John R Wilkinson a production of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. Talking Heads will be the Courtyard Theatre's closing production before major development and the show will also run in the homes of local Leeds residents, and community venues.

Brining said: "Our Spring/Summer 2018 Season will fill the playhouse with vibrant and eclectic work both of epic and intimate scale. I want the work on our stages to continue to interrogate where we are in the world, UK and in the city we reside; questioning what it means to be human, what you call home, and where you lay your roots – from the joyful celebration of Sunshine on Leith to the quiet reflection of Still Alice."

The theatre also has announced its Christmas show for 2018 will be A Christmas Carol.