The 39 Steps, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

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Fast and furious. It’s the Patrick Barlow version of John Buchan — and it’s all about the need for speed. Rapid-fire jokes, mime and gags that is…

If you love sharp gags combined with physical comedy and all the Hitchcock puns you could ever want, then this comedy version of the classic spy story, conspiracy thriller, romance, adventure is for you.

Whilst I wish it was actually taking place in the London Palladium, the show fully utilises the stage, props and niche theatre boxes at the front of the stage. Sit in the stalls and there’s the chance to get showered in fake foamy snow at the end. (The 39 Steps is a Christmas movie!)

Perfectly performed by a cast of four, the only time the show lags a little is when chairs are hefted out and slowly miss their mark — utterly. We linger a bit too long here — with awkwardness perhaps, but none the less. As Barlow stresses this is all about screwball comedy energy here — the faster pace the better. At the same time we need to take this comedy seriously and take the characters seriously. To care.

Tom Byrne is a jaded Richard Hannay, disconnected from the 1930’s pre-war London he’s returned to. But a trip to the theatre (cue use of theatre boxes) leads to an encounter, even being ‘inwolwed’, with enigmatic and gorgeous Annabella Schmidt (Safeena Ladha), who has one of the best death scenes on stage ever, and puts Hannay in a Twister winning ploy to escape. Mysterious men in trench coats who appear with a lamp post whenever Hannay peeks out from his window blind add to the fun.

And it only increases from there! Fleeing from accusations of murder and in pursuit of a man who knows what the 39 Steps are, Hannay joins a packing case train with two really jolly — and very annoying — salesmen. The tension mounts when they get a daily newspaper, with Hannay’s photograph plastered prominently all over it. Cue pulling up his collar and his stylish hat down. It is here too that Hannay is denounced by a fashionable and smart young woman Pamela, who knows a beastly man when she spots one!

There’s a terrific chase across the top of the packing cases…er train… with wind generated by wafting capes and coats and heaps of steam/dry ice! Love it to for the jolly salesman pulling down the ‘window’ of the train, wobbling jowls and announcing the station. Eventually, we reach Edinburgh! and the home of the man who knows about the 39 Steps in the Highlands….

Cue Hannay’s arrival at a very dour Scottish croft, where he charms the wannabe urbanite young wife, and represents a financial reward for the extremely Presbyterian husband. Prayer time becomes more exciting as Hannay tries to sneak peeks at the news and he and the wife have a frantic silent conversation about who he really is — and what he’s done. Some wonderful rear window gags too as Hannay exits the croft. And despite the jolly Charleston-ing (cue comedy open/shut door), Act 1 ends alarmingly as Hannay is apparently shot…(and his corpse dragged under the fire curtain to allow the audience to savour their interval ice cream).

However it turns out that Hannay lives (for the purposes of continuing Act 2) — literally saved by an Act of God. Having employed mime, we now see the most wonderful shadow puppets as puppet Hannay is chased by bad guys, hitches a ride across the loch on Nessie, befriends a deer who boinks the buy guys, allows Hannay a friendly pat and then offers him a ride. So as with Nessie, off they journey… I wish there was more of this it’s so charming and over so quickly. There’s even a North by Northwest deadly plane chase homage…

More cheery is when Hannay crashes a political rally and is spotted by the plucky young woman from the train. Denounced again by the young woman’s whisperings (and horrified screams), they have the most fantastic police car journey ever — using packing cases, a rogue steering wheel and strategic lighting (as well as heaps of fog/dry ice!) Juddering across the moorland, they encounter… sheep.. and Hannay makes his bid for freedom, with his ‘special constable’ mutinously in tow, cuffed to him.

Impersonating a runaway young couple, they hole up at a hotel where everything is more Scottish than Sir Walter Scott. Vanishing under enormous ‘Tam o’ Shanters’ and dripping in Tartan, the twinkly couple dote on their hotel romance — and protect them when trouble comes hunting them. As well as feeding them literal doorstep sandwiches! Like the ‘30’s comedies of old, where couples share a room and pajamas, Hannay and his companion have to master the challenges and thrills of underdressing and drying off — together. But the plucky young woman is super plucky, masterminds an escape, overhears the baddies interrogating the super Scots — and after an invigorating night’s sleep on the floor, tells Hannay that she does believe him after all! (Helpfully too she has family connections in MI5).

Somehow we all end up where we started — in the ‘London Palladium’ with Mr Memory, who it turns out is the key to the 39 Steps. But there’s a gunman secreted in one of the boxes (you can see that he’s armed)…Everything seems to go full circle, but instead there’s a boost of glorious romance — and a sparkly Christmas tree! Enjoy too the other two of the cast showering snow against the window pane prop.

Gripping, thrilling, engaging and a bit pantomime, mixed with hints of ‘Gone Wrong Mischief’ — there’s a chance to join in too as the audience in the political rally. (Not at all beastly). Appreciate Maddie Rice playing two parts at once, with a strategically tied great coat — and Eugene McCoy as the human factoid Mr Memory, (and along with Maddie Rice, everyone else!)

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Cultures: Arts Reviews and Views by Susan Tailby

By Susan Tailby. Appreciator of arts and culture; things I've seen and enjoyed and you might too! Reviews all my own opinion....Theatre, Movies, Dance & Art!