Review: Overheard on a Train by Cheerful Secrets
by Michael Meigs
"Cheerful Secrets," the name of Rebecca Maag's enterprise, captures precisely both her intent and her approach. Her clever projects invite participation, and audiences are gently guided into the happy, amusing revelation of situations and a story.
In her latest, Overheard on a Train, she conducts you and your three friends aboard Austin CapMetro's Red Line train at its downtown station on 4th Street. Literally, in this charmingly intimate theatre world, for she is dressed as The Conductor, wearing a bright red dress , a hat, and an official looking black vest with silvery buttons.
Your group will be staging its own theatrical table reading as the Red Line trundles northward from station to station. Four scripts are offered, each with four characters. Wanna be middle schoolers who've unexpectedly gained secret super powers? Or maybe a huddle of would-be bank robbers whose misadventures outdo the Keystone Cops? No? Well, then, go for the bachelorette party or for the band!
We set out last Saturday with an extra (a three-year-old delighted to be aboard CapMetro's comfortable, elegant, air-conditioned railcar) and with Rebecca herself joining the read. I chose Bank Robber C, who turned out to be a comically distracted nature lover who really wanted the bucks so he could set up a butterfly preserve. His associates A, B, and D were variously ambitious, hopeful, and clueless, winding up in funny wrangles over plans, disguises, aliases, and ambitions. There's a gentle arc to the story, timed so that an intermission arrives when the Red Line arrives clanging at Crestview Station near the intersection of Lamar Boulevard and Airport Road. That's when your party debarks and strolls to a nearby game shop/pub/coffee house for a forty-minute interlude. I can recommend the draft Austin Amber, and our smallest participant was very well satisfied with the baked-to-order cookies that arrived straight from the oven. Your refreshment is included in the price of the ticket.
On the twenty-minute return journey you resume your role play, conclude the story, get an "Easter egg" surprise in the script, and can pose with a background appropriate to your story. It's fun, easy, and not tiring in the least.
The most challenging part of the experience is making sure of your parking. An admonition for those who choose to park at the Austin Convention Center garage (still extant, though the center itself is now an enormous construction site). You'll pay $15 by credit card at the entrance, which will entitle you to overnight parking if you wish --but DON'T LOSE YOUR RECEIPT. We did and discovered that without it, one faces a $60 charge to exit! That was enough to make us pull over and search our vehicle.
It had vanished! Fortunately, we were able to pull up the credit card account on the phone to demonstrate payment, which was eventually sufficient to enable our getaway. (So, who were the real would-be bankrobbers encountered on our expedition?)
Earlier Cheerful Secrets productions, starting in 2022, were two "press junkets" pretending to trumpet the release of an imaginary film (with questions planted in the audience) and Flood of Spirits, a séance event limited to eighteen participants each time. Overheard on a Train is more flexible and may be more amusing. It's certainly an Austin experience both in concept and in execution; and though CapMetro isn't associated officially with it, we saw some knowing, indulgent smiles among the train crews. Publicity for those sleek Red Line trains can't hurt, and it was certainly more fun to be inside looking out than sitting in a vehicle at a railroad crossing wondering how long you'll have to wait for the barriers to lift and let you continue your way.
The last outing for the current season is on May 23, 2026, and tickets are available at the Cheerful Secrets website. There's a well-stocked FAQ there, as well as the video from which a couple of the above images were lifted.
Overheard on a Train
by Rebecca Maag
Cheerful Secrets
April 18 - May 23, 2026
April 18, May 9, May 23, 2026
Departing CapMetro downtown station, 401 E. 4th St., Austin, 78701 at 2:15 p.m. and 4:45 p.m.
Videos and tickets in groups of our available at Cheerful Secrets website (click HERE)
Including check-in time, the full experience lasts two hours.
Your hostess, The Conductor, will be there to guide you.
