Stage: Strangers On A Train steams into the Theatre Royal Brighton from Highsmith via Hitchcock

There has been a trend in British theatre for some years of taking classic films and fiction to the live stage – and for the most part it has been a huge success. There is little doubt that offering the public a chance to enjoy works that they might already know has proved to be a great draw and anything that brings a new audience to live theatre has to be applauded.

Now a major new production of Strangers On A Train is set to steam into theatres across the UK next year. The masterful and gripping thriller is based on the psychological drama by the celebrated writer Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol), and was immortalised in Alfred Hitchcock’s Academy Award winning film. 

Opening at the Theatre Royal Brighton on 5 January 2018, Strangers On A Train is presented by Ambassador Theatre Group and Smith and Brant Theatricals, and directed by Anthony Banks – the team behind the critically acclaimed and phenomenally successful tour of Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight. 

There is also little denying that the inclusion of popular TV actors in casting new productions will also increase the potential audience reach of a play, and in this case they have pulled in a great list of television names who will surely be giving their all to prove that TV actors are of the same calibre as those who have dedicated their careers to stage work.

A masterful and gripping thriller

The cast is led by John Middleton (Detective Arthur Gerard) who left Emmerdale earlier this year in a deeply moving storyline, having played the village’s beloved Vicar Ashley Thomas for over 20 years. 

Christopher Harper – currently appearing on the nation’s screens as Coronation Street’s Nathan Curtis in the show’s explosive grooming storyline – plays the charismatic and manipulative Charles Bruno, a psychopathic playboy who has a chance encounter with a troubled stranger, Guy Haines (played by Jack Ashton, Call The Midwife). 

Hannah Tointon, starring as Guy’s fiancé Anne Faulkner, is famed for her roles in Mr Selfridge (alongside her sister, Kara), The Inbetweeners and Hollyoaks. 

They all come together as a fateful encounter takes place between two men in the dining carriage of a train crossing America. Guy Haines is the successful businessman with a nagging doubt about the fidelity of his wife. Charles Bruno is a cold, calculating chancer with a dark secret. A daring and dangerous plan develops from this casual conversation, setting in motion a chain of events that will change the two men’s lives forever.

Strangers On A Train was written by Craig Warner and based on the world renowned 1950 novel by Patricia Highsmith, latterly made universally famous by the classic Alfred Hitchcock film. In the great tradition of Hitchcock, this spine-chilling tale will delight audiences with its marriage of dark wit and edge-of-the-seat tension.

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