Great Scot! Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of John Buchan’s ripping yarn has arrived in London, following its West Yorkshire Playhouse premiere in June 2005.
Buchan’s tale — or rather Alfred Hitchcock’s, since this stage version owes far more to his 1935 film than to the original 1915 novel — follows the fortunes of dashing Richard Hannay, who, after an encounter with a glamorous mystery woman, finds himself wrongly accused of murder, embroiled in espionage and pursued to the Scottish Highlands as he attempts to thwart the plot of a sinister spy ring and clear his name. Hitchcock’s movie may look quaint to modern eyes, but it makes the story thrilling as well as amusing; Barlow’s play is pure send-up.
That’s perhaps unsurprising, since Barlow is the creator of the beguilingly daft double act the National Theatre of Brent. In Maria Aitken’s new production, his 39 Steps, which spoofs both its own theatrical form and the Hitchcock films to which it is partly homage, is slicker and wittier than at its first appearance in Leeds, zipping by with apt style and silliness.
True, many of the best jokes are lifted directly from the film’s screenplay; true, too, that the whole endeavour seems faintly pointless, since it can scarcely improve on its enduringly effective celluloid inspiration. But if the show remains slight, the ride is rollicking fun.
Advertisement
Four actors play the entire cast of broadly drawn characters. Charles Edwards is the unflappable smoothie Hannay, with Catherine McCormack supplying romance as three contrasting women, including feisty Pamela, a prototype Hitchcockian ice-cool blonde. Rupert Degas and Simon Gregor fill in as everyone else from Cockney coppers to cheery charladies and murderous villains, slipping with comic ease from one costume and cod accent to the next.
Furniture and props whizz on and off stage; billowing fog appears on cue. And there are numerous nods to iconic Hitchcock moments. As Pamela and Hannay struggle through Scottish glens, the shower cubicle from Psycho appears, representing a waterfall. A shadow-puppet chase scene features the bi-plane sequence from North by North-west and a cameo from Hitch himself when his unmistakable silhouette appears. There’s a touch of Vertigo when Pamela, handcuffed to Hannay, erotically removes her stockings. The only real drama, however, is in the music — the sprightly 39 Steps movie score, and Bernard Herrmann’s lush strings from later films. This good-humoured show is a giggle — not much more. Still, when it’s this well-executed, many theatre-goers may feel that’s enough.
Box office: 020-7328 1000 Until Sept 9