Ad disclosure: We were provided with press tickets for the purpose of this post.
Last night James and I dropped the girls off with their Granny to enjoy an evening child free at the theatre, as we were invited along to see The 39 Steps at The Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham city centre.
The 39 Steps is a comedic adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller spy movie of the same name, which in turn is based upon the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. The parody play has won Tony and Olivier awards for its previous productions, and the 2024 UK tour is a remout of the award-winning West End production directed by Maria Aitken and adapted by Patrick Barlow.
This production of The 39 Steps is brought to the stage by UK tour director Nicola Samer, with casting by Abby Galvin and the original creative team. This consists of designer Peter McKintosh, lighting designer Ian Scott, sound designer Mic Pool and director of movement Toby Sedgwick.
I watched the original Hitchcock movie which is currently available on Amazon Prime Video (click here for a 30 day trial if you aren’t already a Prime member!) and is rightly considered a classic. The play is a very faithful adaptation to Hitchcock’s version of the original book, featuring the same characters and key scenes, and much of the dialogue. It is, however, hilariously funny.
While the Hitchcock film has its amusing moments, the play kept the audience laughing all the way through. That’s not to say that they make the story funny, because they don’t – the comedy is all in the eccentricities that come with a 4 person cast portraying multiple characters, all while using the sparse set pieces and clever lighting to represent everything from a train carriage to a Scottish hotel.
Deliberate mistakes and clever comedic timing kept the laughs coming as cast members told each other off or grew frustrated with staging effects happening just a beat too late. Even the props were brought into it, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much about (mostly) inanimate objects before.
I’ve seen a few plays where a few people play a multitude of characters and I’m always amazed how much a quick change of hat or jacket and shift in body language transforms someone completely. The clowns were fantastic at swiftly changing between the various roles – at one point they had three hats each and were a whole train platform full of people between the two of them. Of course, when one of them returned to the train carriage, he had to be told ‘subtly’ by the main character that he had forgotten the last hat change in one of the many funny oops moments that littered the play.
The staging was fantastic, with doors being spun and opened and spun again. The clowns became impediments in a Scottish moorland at one point, and the unexpected use of shadow puppets was an amusing touch. Clever use of music gave extra drama or hilarity to a scene, and the lighting was equally well used. I particularly enjoyed a moment where the main character, Richard Hanney, was giving a rousing speech and inspirational music grew in volume in the background, even as it ended with him completely butchering the Scottish name and sending the audience into peals of laughter.
The characters were portrayed with extra drama, with the foreign agent Richard encounters at the beginning of the play being particularly theatrical – even her demise was twenty times more overdone than in the original movie – and choreographed to the extremely dramatic music. The shy Scottish wife was twice as lovestruck, and the meetings between Richard and his main love interest were practically given an angelic chorus moment.
We were treated to stockings removed in seductive slow motion (while Richard’s expressions and mannerisms in response kept the crowd giggling), super shifty looking secret agents lurking under a lamppost (that they had to drag on & off the stage every time someone peeked through a window), a news reporter who couldn’t seem to help himself from nattering on about the attractiveness of the subject of his broadcasts, and plenty of coat & hat flapping whenever the imaginary wind was blowing.
The clowns frequently played the opposite gender – even when playing married couples – and their various interactions with each other throughout were side splittingly funny.
I don’t want to give every funny moment away as so many surprise elements that startled a bark of laughter from the audience would be ruined with fore knowledge. Suffice to say, if you want to spend a few hours getting an excellent dose of endorphins, you should definitely consider going along to watch this show. You don’t need to know the story or have seen the film to enjoy it, either – James didn’t and he loved it just as much as I did. It is utterly joyful whilst retaining the best elements of the story and characters from Hitchcock’s take on the tale.
We happily give The 39 Steps a 5 star rating and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good laugh. It’s the quirky British humour of Monty Python meets the suave spy thriller of James Bond, in the form of an incredibly entertaining play.
View the trailer:
The 39 Steps is at The Alexandra until Saturday 8th June 2024, in addition to touring other venues around the UK. The running time is around 1 hour 50 minutes, and tickets start from just £13.00.
