Our Winter 2018 play was The 39 Steps and was performed at The Coronation Hall from Tuesday 20th to Friday 23rd November 2018
The 39 Steps is a melodrama adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept and production of a four-actor version of the story was by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. Patrick Barlow rewrote this adaptation in 2005.
The play's original concept called for the entirety of the 1935 adventure film The 39 Steps to be performed with a cast of only four. However, our production will use a cast of 14, with many people still playing multiple roles. This may still require some lightning fast quick changes. Thus, the film's serious spy story is played mainly for laughs, and the script is full of allusions to (and puns on the titles of) other Alfred Hitchcock films, including Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest.
The film is very loosely based on the 1915 adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It is about an everyman civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organization of spies called the 39 Steps from stealing British military secrets.
Richard Hannay is at a London theatre, attending a demonstration of the remarkable powers of “Mr. Memory”, a man with a photographic memory, when a fight breaks out and a shot is fired. In the ensuing panic, he finds himself holding a frightened Annabella Schmidt, who talks him into taking her back to his flat.
There, she tells him that she is a spy, being chased by assassins out to kill her. She claims to have uncovered a plot to steal vital British military secrets, implemented by a man who is the head of an espionage organization called “The 39 Steps.”
The next day, Hannay wakes up to find her dead, stabbed with a knife. He sneaks out of the flat disguised as a milkman and takes a train to Scotland, where she had told him she was going to find the leader of the espionage group. On the train, he sees the police on his trail. In desperation, he enters a compartment and, in an attempt to escape detection, passionately kisses the sole occupant, the attractive Pamela. She however manages to free herself from his unwanted embrace and betrays him to the law. He jumps from the train and escapes.
He stays the night with a poor older farmer and his young wife who sees in Hannay the dashing, romantic.
Audiences were entertained by our wonderful cast:
Duncan Lindsay - Richard Hannay
Hannah Fishwick - Arabella, Pamela & Margaret
Rob O’Hara & Adam Atkinson - The Clowns (Salesmen, Heavies, Policemen, Pilots)
Matt Berry - Compere & Milkman
Paul Jordin - Mr Memory & The Crofter
Helen Newell - Mrs McGarrigle
Phil Cooper - Mr McGarrigle and Mr. McQuarrie
Seamus Doran - Professor Jordon
Pat Timewell - Mrs Jordon.
John Brice - Mr Dunwoody
Chris Barron - The Sheriff
Barbara Springthorpe - Mrs Higgins and Chief Inspector Albright
Jean Hunt - Radio Announcer
Reviews:
A great review from John Edgley at thebestof Barrow and Furness
The 39 Steps is a melodrama adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept and production of a four-actor version of the story was by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. Patrick Barlow rewrote this adaptation in 2005.
The play's original concept called for the entirety of the 1935 adventure film The 39 Steps to be performed with a cast of only four. However, our production will use a cast of 14, with many people still playing multiple roles. This may still require some lightning fast quick changes. Thus, the film's serious spy story is played mainly for laughs, and the script is full of allusions to (and puns on the titles of) other Alfred Hitchcock films, including Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest.
The film is very loosely based on the 1915 adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It is about an everyman civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organization of spies called the 39 Steps from stealing British military secrets.
Richard Hannay is at a London theatre, attending a demonstration of the remarkable powers of “Mr. Memory”, a man with a photographic memory, when a fight breaks out and a shot is fired. In the ensuing panic, he finds himself holding a frightened Annabella Schmidt, who talks him into taking her back to his flat.
There, she tells him that she is a spy, being chased by assassins out to kill her. She claims to have uncovered a plot to steal vital British military secrets, implemented by a man who is the head of an espionage organization called “The 39 Steps.”
The next day, Hannay wakes up to find her dead, stabbed with a knife. He sneaks out of the flat disguised as a milkman and takes a train to Scotland, where she had told him she was going to find the leader of the espionage group. On the train, he sees the police on his trail. In desperation, he enters a compartment and, in an attempt to escape detection, passionately kisses the sole occupant, the attractive Pamela. She however manages to free herself from his unwanted embrace and betrays him to the law. He jumps from the train and escapes.
He stays the night with a poor older farmer and his young wife who sees in Hannay the dashing, romantic.
Audiences were entertained by our wonderful cast:
Duncan Lindsay - Richard Hannay
Hannah Fishwick - Arabella, Pamela & Margaret
Rob O’Hara & Adam Atkinson - The Clowns (Salesmen, Heavies, Policemen, Pilots)
Matt Berry - Compere & Milkman
Paul Jordin - Mr Memory & The Crofter
Helen Newell - Mrs McGarrigle
Phil Cooper - Mr McGarrigle and Mr. McQuarrie
Seamus Doran - Professor Jordon
Pat Timewell - Mrs Jordon.
John Brice - Mr Dunwoody
Chris Barron - The Sheriff
Barbara Springthorpe - Mrs Higgins and Chief Inspector Albright
Jean Hunt - Radio Announcer
Reviews:
A great review from John Edgley at thebestof Barrow and Furness
