Adaptation of Hitchcock's 39 Steps at Huntington Theatre Company
Broadway Bound Farce Opens Season at Boston University Theatre
By: Mark Favermann - Sep 20, 2007
Alfred Hitchcock's 39 Steps
Presented by The Huntington Theatre Company
At The Boston University Theatre
Adapted by Patrick Barlow
Based on an original concept by
Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon
Based on the book by John Buchan Approximate Running Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes; including 1 intermission
Performances 9/14/2007 – 10/14/2007
http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/
Fact 1: There are 39 Articles of Religion that were agreed upon by the Church of England in 1571. These form the basis of the Articles of the Episcopal Church of America and the Articles of the Methodist Church.
Fact 2: There were exactly 39 steps at the London's old Wembley Stadium needed to be climbed to reach the Royal Box and collect a winner's trophy.
Fact 3: The 39th Day of the year is February 8.
Fact 4: There are 39 books in the Old Testament.
Fact 5: The Adaptor of this 39 Steps production, Patrick Barlow, played the orange tinted lover of Brigit Jones' mother in Brigit Jones' Diary.
Fact 6: The Director of this 39 Steps, Maria Aitken, played John Cleese's (of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fame) loveless, forlorn wife in the film a Fish Called Wanda.
Fact 7: Though he died at age 80, the Comedian Jack Benny never admitted to being older than 39. He felt that there was nothing funny about 40.
Anyone who is either a lover of English mysteries, Monty Pythonesque humor, old English music hall slapstick, film noir, clever even brilliant theatrical scene and prop machinations and brilliant comedic timing should get their buns in a seat at 39 Steps ASAP. Run don't walk.
After winning accolades in London's West End including the 2007 Olivier for best new comedy (London's Tony Award), this clever, funny whodunit is making its American debut this fall at the Huntington on its way to Broadway in December. A blend of tightly paced and highly synchronized theatrical schtick and clever comedic writing, directing and performing, 39 Steps is a joy to sit through and savor.
This is an espionage thriller married to English music hall slapstick. It is an adaptation of a now classic 1935 film adapted from a 1915 novel and translated hilariously in a tongue-in-cheek and very cheeky way. We are transported back in time and space in a brilliantly minimal but extremely flexible stage set. Costume and set changes are at various times clever, surprising, witty, amusing and even magical. This is a play of 150 characters played by four actors and a hand! Only the wrongly accused heroic leading man, Richard Hannay, played by Charles Edwards, stays the same throughout. Edwards also created the Hannay role in the London production. Each of the other three cast members are quick change artists extraordinaire.
At the start of the play, we are introduced to a bored recently returned ex-patriot, Richard Hannay. To distract himself, he decides to visit an English music hall where Mr. Memory is performing. Then unexplainably, shots ring out across the crowded theatre, and Richard Hannay is lured into a world of intrigue and danger by a mysterious dark woman claiming to be a spy. This is the highly accented Annabella Schmidt played by Jennifer Ferrin. They go to his flat to hide, but there are dangerous-looking men lurking outside. When she winds up dead, Hannay flees London with Scotland Yard soon hot on his trail.
The rest of the action is about discovering the who, what and where of suspense, espionage, murder and stolen national secrets in not necessarily good or even always logical order. But, along the way, brilliant, rubber-faced and morphing actors Cliff Saunders and Arnie Burton play an amazing number of comically nuanced roles that are good and evil, silly and serious and even both male and female, Ferrin's roles run the spectrum wonderfully from femme fatale to the woman who hates then loves to the isolated neglected wife. In each case, she creates totally different but memorable characters. Only Hannay is the unchanging hero figure. Hannay is wonderful and charming in what could have been but is not a cardboard role. Even "the hand" is boffo.
Director Maria Aitken must be given great credit for the energy and ingenuity of this production. This is highly entertaining cleverness at once cutting edge and also old fashioned. Designer Peter McKintosh served both as brilliant costume designer and inventive set designer. Both directorial vision and creative design play major roles in this 39 Steps production.
This production of 39 Steps is an innovative English farce played for laughs with great physical comedy. Like Richard Hannay, there is no escaping this extremely clever, wonderful and unexpected British comedy thriller. Enjoy.