The 39 Steps

I have, at times, been irritated by Patrick Barlow’s writing; some of his National Theatre of Brent material seems to depend on one rather thin joke.  On the other hand, his treatment of The 39 Steps is absolutely superb, with every moment packed with entertainment from a huge palette of visual, verbal, audio and theatrical jokes, with interesting development for even the minor characters.  And there are a lot of characters.  The hero, Richard Hannay (Alec Walters) is on stage for almost the whole show.  The three main female roles are played by one person (Julia Mantell, in this case) with the rest of the roles (aside from an uncredited housekeeper - Mary Stone, I presume) played by the two “clowns” (Charlie Seligman and John Wakerman), running through spies, policemen, workers of various sorts through to assorted Scotsmen and their wives.

There is also a huge number of locations.  This is a challenge for any theatre, but the Chesil in particular is blessed with very little in the way of scene-changing facilities.  The locations were “announced” by upstage projections of a series of drawings (captioned illustrations) by Ian Fraser and then created on stage with little more than a few chairs and four stage blocks which became seats in a railway carriage, stepping stones across a swollen river, an office desk, a hotel reception desk and part of a bed.

The play was directed to underplay the silliness and the melodrama, allowing the actors room to create credible characters (within the framework of an incredible story).  The result was a set of great performances and a hilarious show.  A few favourite moments (amongst many): the early morning exchange between Hannay and the milkman, the doorbell gag (Hannay jabs his finger in mid air and a doorbell sounds) and the fleeting romance between Hannay and Margaret, the crofter’s wife with her husband lurking suspiciously.  In that last scene in particular, Julia Mantell kept the emotion just on the believable side of the melodramatic, packing a lot into a very brief scene.

You couldn’t wish for a more entertaining night out.

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