The 39 Steps

If you have read the John Buchan book or seen one of the film versions of The 39 Steps I can hear you asking, “How can the story transfer to the stage?” The answer is actually; very well, with some clever adaptation as a spoof spy thriller, it is absolutely hilarious. It has only a minimal set, which can be quickly transformed into a huge variety of locations and four actors to play over a 100 characters. The only actor to play a single character is the one playing Richard Hannay, ‘40ish with piercing blue eyes and a pencil moustache’. The other three have multiple roles, sometimes having to hold conversations with themselves as another person and changing character with a hat or an accent, very clever.

I have seen this play set in several ways, but this one had a bare stage with two large wooden step ladders; a set of wooden boxes which represented in turn, tables, train seats, a car, an aeroplane, a reception desk, a bed and probably other things I have forgotten about; a practical door on wheels; a hat stand with a window frame just hanging over one of the hooks, being removed and climbed through whenever anyone was required to escape through a window; a leather armchair; and a lamp post. The audience is required to use its imagination and combined with good lighting and sound effects we are transported from London to Scotland in no time at all. The train journey to Scotland was well done, and left Hannay hanging from the Forth Bridge. The aeroplane and car were both simple but very effective.

The stage crew changed the scenes with precision but sometimes a little ponderously, which slowed the momentum. The lighting had been well designed and was effective and well operated. The sound effects are extremely important in this play helping create scenes such the train journey, and the aeroplane, also there were many different pieces of music required throughout, they were all well recorded and well cued. Also Props had been well sourced and used well.

The costume and make-up teams certainly had their work cut out making sure everyone had suitable costumes and when they wore them. The costumes for Richard Hannay, Annabelle, Pamela and Margaret were fairly straightforward, but for the other two they needed a simple basic costume with many additional items to allow the many rapid changes they had to make. The addition of various hats and wigs enabled them to make swift and believable character changes. Annabelle, Pamela and Margaret did not appear at the same time so giving opportunity to change costumes and wigs in a more leisurely fashion.

Heidi Price had cast the play well, with all four actors creating the many roles demanded of them. Glenn Chapman gave a fine portrayal of the dashing, well-spoken, 40ish hero with the pencil moustache. It was a lovely scene when he was mistaken for the invited speaker and he delivered a convincing speech not having a clue what he was talking about. Claire Greenwood as Annabelle, Pamela and Margaret showed skill in changing roles and accents from the alluring foreign spy, to the girl on the train, who Hannay eventually falls in love with, to the Scottish farmers wife, all well-defined characters.  Last but not least there were John Salter and Richard Tiley playing everyone else with their rapid changes of character and accents they did an amazing job, how they remembered who they were at any given time is a wonder. The cast brought out all the wit and humour of the play, with their excellent timing and facial expressions.

Director, Heidi Price, had obviously worked very hard with her talented cast and had been well supported by an efficient and dedicated technical team, to make this a laugh a minute production, with the audience enjoying every second of it. Congratulations everyone.

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