Theatre Review - The 39 Steps
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| Technical Hitch: Safeena Ladha and Tom Byrne in The 39 Steps [Mark Senior] |
PATRICK Barlow’s playful adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 classic spy thriller (inspired by John Buchan’s 1915 book) is ambitiously recast with four actors playing 139 roles.
We follow the adventures of likable young fogey, tweed-wearing Richard Hannay (Tom Byrne), who gets into trouble when Annabella Smith (Safeena Ladha), a secret agent he meets at the London Palladium, seeks sanctuary at his Portland Place flat.
Overnight she is murdered, leaving him with a map of the Scottish Highlands and an enigmatic reference to “the thirty-nine steps”.
Hannay sets off on the run attempting to elude Annabella’s assassins and the police, now hunting him for murder, while trying to solve the mystery of the thirty-nine steps.
Arriving in Scotland, he becomes entangled in a plot involving a villainous professor and an international spy ring intent on smuggling sensitive information abroad.
Maria Aitken’s fast-paced, low-tech production is delightfully silly although the fusion of am-dram, slapstick and farce takes a little getting used to and is probably better suited to a smaller stage.
However, there’s fun to be had. We are reminded at every turn of the artifice of theatre – cues are missed, props misfire, scenery is wheeled on and off, and there is an enjoyable chase scene across the Scottish moors using shadow puppets. All aided by Ian Scott’s atmospheric lighting and Mic Pool’s sound effects. Hitchcock aficionados will enjoy spotting the visual and verbal references to other films.
Ladha plays a trio of women including Pamela, Hannay’s unwilling accomplice and love interest, while Eugene McCoy and Maddie Rice act their socks off as two clowns performing numerous roles.
Cheerful and rumbustious.
Until September 28