Strangers on a Train

Strangers on a Train comes to the Theatre Royal Brighton from 6 to 10 April 2027, as part of a national tour. It's a stage adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel, written for the theatre by Craig Warner and directed by Roxana Silbert. If you know the story, you'll recognise it as the one Alfred Hitchcock famously turned into a film, which in turn had come from Highsmith's book.

The plot is a classic thriller setup. Guy Haines meets Charles Bruno on a train, and the two strike up a conversation that goes a bit too far. Haines lets slip that he wants to divorce his unfaithful wife, Miriam; Bruno reveals he wants to get rid of his father, who sits on a large fortune. Bruno proposes they swap murders: he'll kill Miriam, and Haines will kill his father. It's the perfect crime, he argues, because the police would never link either man to the act given the complete lack of motive. Haines returns home to find Bruno has already killed Miriam, and now Bruno expects him to honour their agreement.

It's a story built on a bad idea and the panic that follows, so it's easy to see why it works as a thriller. The production is directed by Roxana Silbert, and the run in Brighton is just one stop on a wider UK tour that kicks off in 2027.

Practical details: the show runs for two hours and 45 minutes, including one interval, so you'll want to leave plenty of time. It plays at the Theatre Royal Brighton from 6 to 10 April 2027.