‘For my professional writing debut, I wanted to follow advice and write about something I knew, so out came a musical about yearning for connection. It seems like saying hi to the person next to you is a solid place to start.' Stephanie MacGaraidh
The dramatic thread flowing through this bittersweet monologue certainly appears centred on heartfelt, personal experience. There’s a moment, early on, after Maggie boards a ScotRail train from Glasgow to Aberdeen that you realise this is not exactly the journey she had (vaguely) planned.
As the writer and solo performer in Stephanie's MacGaraidh's debut play, ‘Off the Rails’ is part confessional, part character comedy, part live-looped indie gig. The stage is set with two ScotRail train seats, keyboard, electronic loop station and semi-acoustic guitar to create a vivid soundscape and musical accompaniment to a medley of songs.
Sitting in the Quiet Coach in her pyjamas, no less, clutching a tote bag containing a stale Go Ahead snack, this is Maggie’s thirtieth birthday and by her own anxious admission, a woman in retreat. Looking rather dazed and disorientated, the train announcements bleed into her outspoken thoughts as the steady rhythm of the carriage on wheels echo her racing heartbeat.
The lyrics carry the narrative along - ‘being on track’ and ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’ Stephanie’s smooth vocal tone shifts seamlessly through folk-pop and R&B with the melodic sensibility of Dora Previn, Natasha Bedingfield & KT Tunstall. As a one-woman band, the layering of loop recordings create vocal harmonies and percussive motifs keeps tempo to the motion of the train itself.
Maggie’s private reveries are interrupted by a series of brief encounters – a raucous hen party, a middle-aged mother chatting about her ungrateful daughter, and a kindly widower. Each character is brilliantly dramatised through voice and gesture, the dialogue written like a short story, ‘she said’ or ‘he asked’ succinctly peppering each conversation.
But then a “hot guy” in a linen suit sits beside her, reading a Margaret Atwood novel (‘he’s a feminist!’). She swiftly imagines, with exquisite detail, falling in love, marriage and family life, until her fantasy vanishes in an instant.
The novelist Lisa St. Aubin de Terain wrote a delightful memoir entitled ‘Off the Rails’, which she dedicates ‘for all the people I have met on trains.’ She is fascinated by the romantic notion of railway journeys as an escape from real life.
‘ I would like to say that I was born on the Orient Express as my mother took her bi-monthly trip to Istanbul, wrapped in silk in the guard’s van …. but I was born in Kensington.’
In similar fashion, Maggie wishes she could escape the distorted memories of tough times in the past, ghosted by a school friend and work colleague which has made her withdraw into herself. Is she to blame, does no one like her? MacGaraidh handles the emotional angst with a lightness of touch, allowing humour and vulnerability to co-exist without friction.
Under Katie Slater’s direction, the pacing remains fluid, shifting gear with confidence as characters board and disembark, both literally and psychologically. Maggie is almost deliberately underplayed allowing the flamboyant cameo characters to provide contrast and colour. The charm and clarity of MacGaraidh’s voice as writer-performer carries the drama through storytelling and song with humour and poignancy in equal measure.
What could so easily veer into sentimentality, the ending lands with gentle optimism. It speaks to connection, to the quiet courage of staying rather than fleeing and realising that what we are searching for may already be within reach.
What impresses most is the script writing, keenly observed, emotionally truthful and often very amusing. ‘Off the Rails’ is a debut musical play that should travel far and wide and the perfect Edinburgh Festival Fringe production. This is a ScotRail train worth catching.
Showtimes:
29 April - 3 May, 2026 @ 1pm. (Also @ 6pm 30th April)
Ticket price: £18 - includes a pint of beer / glass of wine / soft drink and a pie. Play only £13.50
Suitability: 14+
https://assemblyroxy.com/whats-on/413-a-play-a-pie-and-a-pint-off-the-rails