I spy: 'The 39 Steps' mixes Hitchcock with a dash of Monty Python
Apr. 15—Mix an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of vintage Monty Python and you have "The 39 Steps," a whodunit, part espionage thriller and part slapstick comedy, adapted for the stage from the famous film and novel.
Shots ring out across a crowded theater, luring Richard Hannay into a world of intrigue by a mysterious and glamorous woman claiming to be a spy. When she winds up dead in his flat, he flees London while the police chase him.
The Albuquerque Little Theatre is performing the Drama Desk and two-time Tony Award winner "The 39 Steps" from Friday, April 19, through May 5.
It's the classic Hitchcock soufflé of an innocent man accused of a crime who must clear his name.
The authors pepper the show with gratifyingly groan-making visual, verbal and aural references to other Hitchcock films.
"There's 'Go to the window,' he says, asking which window," said director Henry Avery. "She says, 'The rear window.' A pilot says, 'It's north by northwest.' "
A knife-wielding maniac lurks behind a shower curtain. Crop duster silhouettes pursue Hannay.
"Strangers on a Train," "Rear Window," "North by Northwest" and "The Birds" (one of the stage managers has feathery friends on her head and shoulders and on the sign she is holding) are among the references, played strictly for goofiness.
The concept calls for just four actors playing more than 150 characters, including chairs.
The cast members recreate a chase atop a speeding train, a suspension bridge, a windy Scottish moor, a London theater and a sprawling mansion.
If the plot sounds like it belongs to a certain British director, it does. But this version of Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film noir classic gives the spy story a comedic twist.
It's Monty Python-meets-Hitch.
The opening scene of this theatrical riff reflects today's obsessions. The protagonist Richard Hannay is fed up with newspapers bearing tales of "elections and wars and rumors of wars." He longs for "something mindless and trivial. Something utterly pointless." His jaw unclenches for a "Eureka!" moment. "I know!" he says. "I'll go to the theater!"
Cue the gunshots.
The play stars Brian Schaeffer as Hannay with Rachel Foster, Zane Ivey and Rob Armstrong Martin.
The parody was adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan, as well as the Hitchcock film. The original concept and production of a four-actor version of the story was written by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, and premiered in 1996. Patrick Barlow rewrote this adaptation in 2005.
