THE 39 STEPS AT THE ARTS THEATRE
Safeena Ladha & Tom Byrne, ©Mark Senior
How fiendishly frenetic can a comedy get? The 39 Steps is a spoof on a grand scale.
A mysterious vaudeville act opens the show. ‘Mr. Memory’ takes questions from the audience . His brilliant recall packs out the London Palladium. This is the 1930s. The BBC voiceover with his rolling vowels and superb pronunciation places us firmly in a long -gone era of upper class gentility. How is Mr.Memory connected to the story about to unfold? Only at the end of this hilarious – and intriguing – play, do we find out.
Another mystery; how four actors can contort a famous spy thriller into a comedy? The 39 steps is a stern solid thriller. Written by Britain’s favourite author in the 1930s John Buchan, as a novel with deadly serious intent, it features Richard Hannay as the truly principled hero . We first meet him at home , deflated, in his Portland Street flat, returned from exploits in the distant Empire, (Canada) He reflects on his lonely life bereft of friends- so many scattered to the corners of the globe - one pal Chips devoured by crocodiles in the Limpopo river. Richard 38 years old a handsome hero of 6 feet one with a dashing moustache ( so the fruity voice of the BBC voiceover repeatedly tells us, ) despairs of his dull life.
The 39 Steps - Eugene McCoy, Safeena Ladha & Tom Byrne, ©Mark Senior.
It is not long before the sinister world of espionage intervenes. At the Palladium he encounters a glamorous foreign -beautiful of course -woman who fires off a pistol from her balcony seat. She comes home with him ( Richard gallantly sleeps in a chair) but by morning she is dead – and he blamed for her murder. Following Annabella Schmit’s last warnings, Richard Hannay is on the hunt for foreign spies intent on smuggling key aero-information out of the country.
The props misbehave, the lighting is just seconds late to illumine, it is all played for laughs – and the result is a brilliantly contrived evening of calculated theatrical fun. Each scene is inspired. As he flees from the police on the train to London, the spit second timing conveys the right level of tension – and a huge mix of mischievous mayhem .Tom Byrne as Richard Hannay blends a relentless gallantry with his comic capers. His light touch is inspired- he never drops his mask of serious propriety – yet he’s a hero with nuance . We believe in him. In fact one of the highlights of the play was the scene where pursued by armed villains ( Eugene Mccoy and Maddie Rice doubled and tripled as bad boys from every angle) Richard has to address a political rally. The setting is comic, but his rousing speech on the values he believes in has the audience ( house lights up) applaud as we got behind his stirring message as Scottish party faithful . There was just enough real warmth in the romantic scenes – with a crofter’s wife – to balance the absurdity. And his love match with Pamela is spikey enough to draw us in to real romance. Safeen Ladha played all the female leads , shady murdered Annabelle posh Pamela, and Margaret the lonely partner of the religious zealot ( his stolen Bible stops a bullet for our Heroic Hannay.
If you like skilful slapstick, you have it in bucketloads but leavened by a driving authenticity so compelling Alfred Hitchcock made it into a spy thriller. And for film buffs, the script is peppered with Hitchcock titles . Hannay does it all. He hangs from the Forth Bridge on his escape from the agents on the train, he scales Scottish mountains ( all done very convincingly with giant shadow- drama,) and even loses his temper with the gorgeous Pamela when she returns to see him “ You idiot! Why did you come back! You should have rung Scotland Yard” She does and gets her uncle Robert, the Chief Commissioner– prompting the super corny question “ So, Bob’s your Uncle?’
Fatuous funny and fast. A triumph of superb timing and brilliant direction ( thank you Maria Aitken ) Not to be missed.
