Review: THE 39 STEPS at Little Theatre, University Of Adelaide

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, 25th October 2024.

The 39 Steps is a classic adventure story first published in 1915. John Buchan, later Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada, wanted, he said, to write a dime novel sort of story.

There have been many adaptations of the tale and the Theatre Guild has chosen the Patrick Barlow version based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie. It has a cast of thousands. Actually, maybe dozens is closer to the truth. No, this version, directed by Mark Wickett, has a cast of four, with a sound effects manager, poised on the balcony.

How is it done? Wonderfully. Thomas Midena is Hannay, Buchan’s hero. He’s a man back in London after a long time abroad, and he’s bored. In fact the play begins with Midena quoting Buchan’s words. He’s an excellent choice for the role of leading man. Imogen Deller-Evans plays all the female leads, starting with the exotic spy whose murder in Hannay’s apartment puts him in an uncomfortable position from which he has to wriggle free. When you see the show, and you must, you’ll see what I mean. Everybody else is Maxwell Whigham and Emily Branford. They’re named the clowns. Murderers, conspirators, bystanders, an hysterically funny crofter couple, delivered with pace and rapid changes of identity, costume, gender, whatever. In one scene, at the railway station, Whigham is both a policeman and a railway guard. He doesn’t even need two hats. He just reverses the one hat on his head. Branford is a firecracker, with manic energy and sheer joy in every moment.

Angela Short provides the narration and the wonderful sound effects. Her carefully co-ordinated Foley work is a part of the magic atmosphere. The Little Theatre, part fishbowl, part amphitheatre, London apartment, and a highland glen, hasn’t seen this much laugh-aloud action in a very long time.

Patrick Barlow, founder of the National Theatre of Brent, has drawn on the Hitchcock film with Robert Donat and Madeleine Caroll celebrating the patriotic heroics of the tale while his theatrical imagination runs wild. There’s even an Alfred Hitchcocktail at the bar.

I was talking about the show to my oldest friend, Liz Osman, and mentioned Imogen Deller-Evans as the love interest. “I don’t remember there being a love interest. I’ll go and re-read the story”.

Back to the original I went. The spy murdered in Hannay’s apartment is a man called Scudder. Hitchcock could see that teaming Hannay with a woman would be more attractive to a movie audience. In fact, comparing Buchan’s original with the film, indeed with the various adaptations, is illuminating. The famous Hitchcock of 1935 is a great place to start. I saw it years ago and loved it. Kenneth More, that archetypically decent Briton, with Taina Elg, was the 1959 Hannay. Robert Powell played the hero in 1978, and Rupert Penry-Jone, later in Spooks, played the lead in 2008.

Buchan’s original has some dispiriting aspects, such as the anti-Semitic stuff, but we’re grown-ups.

Whip along to the Little Theatre and have the time of their lives. You can bring drinks in.