Review: THE 39 STEPS, Trafalgar Theatre

Patrick Barlow’s parody The 39 Steps creaks and groans in places but still has plenty of laughs. Wrapped around the central character of Richard Hannay, the story unfurls as we see him accused of murder, run from the police and then defeat a foreign cabal of spies. 

This 2005 play has deep roots, being based on Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal 1935 film (which has had many adaptations over the years with a new take coming along roughly every two decades) as well as being an update of Simon Corble and Nobby Dinon’s 1995 stage version. There’s no need to bone up on any of those as Barlow puts the emphasis more on squeezing every laugh possible than callbacks to the movies. That’s a good thing: while the plot is about as plausible as an election manifesto, the play retains the pace, passion and varied twists that Hannay faces along the way.

The cast is small but perfectly formed. Tom Byrne plays our thirty-something hero who we first meet in his flat bemoaning the loss of his chums - one to marriage, another to crocodiles - and feeling sorry for himself. A night out at the local music hall sees him return to his pad with the mysterious Annabella (Safeena Ladha). No sooner has she told him of her dangerous mission than she keels over from a fatal case of sudden stabbing. Byrne jumps onto a train where he meets the beautiful Pamela (Ladha again) and tracks down the dastardly agents with Teutonic accents. The rest of the characters are wonderfully played by Eugene McCoy and Maddie Rice with admirable clowning, quick changes and cheeky charm.

Peter McKintosh’s set design is a high point. Maria Aitken’s direction (with Nicola Samer directing this tour) has silliness sewn in throughout but the use of the simple, lightweight props gives this highly kinetic show a sense of genuine speed as we watch Hannay jump across the top of a train or drive like a lunatic. The movement design from Toby Sedgwick adds a fluid nature to even the most deliberately stilted of dialogues while the sound and lighting (from Mic Pool and Ian Scott respectively) add to the atmosphere.

Barlow doesn’t hold back in poking fun at the original film, not least its approach to romance and broad stereotyping. Overacting is the name of the game and the cast throw themselves into this with gusto. Unlike cult classics like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Airplane! and Top Secret!, the writing is a little too beholden to the source material with only references to other Hitchcock films like North By Northwest and Psycho broadening its cultural scope. Even when ignoring the work it is patterned on, there’s a dated feel about this play that lacks the audacious physical japery of later stage spoofs like The Play That Goes Wrong.

The 39 Steps continues at the Trafalgar Theatre until 28 September.

Photo credit: Mark Senior