The 39 Steps

I had mixed feelings about this show.

This play adapts Alfred Hitchcock’s film of The 39 Steps to be performed by only four actors (and some overworked stage crew). It’s a thriller of an innocent man being caught up in international espionage in the early 1900s, leading him from London to Scotland and back. Hitchcock took many liberties when adapting the film from the original novel, so much so that the identity of the “39 Steps” is completely different from that of the book. Hitchcock must have liked the novel’s concept, because he later re-made it with an American Cold-War setting as North by Northwest.

The play not only adapts Hitchcock’s film but also has lots of other Hitchcock references and in-jokes, both in the script and the sight gags. In that respect some of the younger audience were wondering what some of the older members were laughing at.

This production has a strong cast. Trevor Burdon makes protagonist Richard Hannay his own, rather than copying Robert Donat or Cary Grant, who played the roles for Hitchcock. Lorraine Toweel has the vampy spy and Hitchcock blonde down pat. Laurie Snee and Michelle Butcher have the lion’s share of doubling roles (I lost count) and steal the show, maintaining character and accent throughout in some difficult fast changes. Several effects were well realised, all without anything fancy other than the actors and simple props e.g the chase atop a speeding train, the dialogue through the cattle stile, the fall from the Forth Bridge, the conversion of a speaker’s podium into a car, the escape through the rear window.

My biggest difficulty was the tone. This show couldn’t decide if it was going to be a serious drama with the occasional funny bit or an all-out farce. When it stuck to telling the story it was great. However the script also parodies theatre conventions, so it’s peppered with corny am-dram sight gags: the telephone keeps ringing after it’s answered, a stage crew’s arm rolls out of the wings to offer a forgotten prop, an actor breaks character and fourth wall to compliment the Sound Guy. These things are funny when the rest of the show is in the same vein, but done here it seemed like a bunch of serious pro actors trying their first Christmas panto: “Uncle Vanya and Widow Twanky save Godot!”.

These theatre in-jokes dragged the show for me, and I noticed they garnered the least laughs.

This was my first time seeing this show. Having no other production with which to compare it I couldn’t tell if the uneven tone was due to the script or its execution. Despite this I couldn’t help feel that somewhere the point was missed.

My only other bother was the music. There is a lot of music used in this show – so much that it could be considered a 5^th cast member. Although used effectively for the most part, there were times when the music felt unnecessary and became intrusive. If you don’t want to turn it off then please turn it down.  Hopefully this will be fine tuned over the season.

Still on the music, it was disappointing that no music and composer credits were given in the programme. Most of it was Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock’s long time collaborator. I wouldn’t carp about this if the music didn’t play such an important role in this show, but even the pre-recorded voice over guy (whose total contribution comes to about one minute) scored a nice pic and bio. Music was important to Hitchcock and was a factor in creating the “Hitchcockian” feel. An insert or listing on the website may fix this.

Peter Novakovich

Photographer: Angela Cascarino