Review - The 39 Steps - Melbourne Theatre Company

In(step)Jokes

The 39 Steps could be the Melbourne Theatre Company's entry in this year's Comedy Festival as a high energy spoof of John Buchan's famous spy story of the same name. The version more spoofed here, however, is Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film version. Hitchcock's script added the now famous, train sequences, the Music Hall performer and fellow spy Mr 'Am I right Sir?' Memory (one of my favorite movie characters) as well as some unrelieved sexual tension.

This take on a classic book and film is by Patrick Barlow who acts, directs, produces and writes plays, his speciality is improbable farce, the most famous of them until now a comedy fable about Princess Diana. Barlow's adaptation is an elaborate version of many a comedy sketch that spoofs a famous movie. Briefly it concerns the tweedy but intrepid Robert Hannay (Marcus Graham) who becomes involved with a mysterious woman after a trip to the theatre. She is murdered in his flat and Hannay is thrown into a whirlwind spy chase while trying to clear his name as the murderer. Apart from being a lighthearted spoof it is done by only four actors, one playing Hannay throughout, one as the mysterious woman and then the love interest Pamela (Helen Christinson) with everyone else taken by a couple of comics (Grant Piro and Tony Taylor).

Everything about the play is intended to suggest the time the film was made, the period detail even extending into the set. Played on a bare stage, with the back wall of the theatre in view, set designer Peter McKintosh has created a red brick wall like any inter-war theatre would have. A false proscenium at front with stage boxes either side visually complements the old-world charm of Barlow's play. The look and feel is one of attending an impoverished repertory theatre in the English provinces circa 1935. Barlow parodies that era of theatre as completely as he parodies Buchan and Hitchcock. It helps if you know that 1935 film and it helps even more if you know it well. Hitchcock buffs will also enjoy the visual references to his films and the selection of Bernard Herrmann film scores. The play doesn't (and simply can't) recreate the film scene by scene but there are some however, like the scary moment when the Crofter notices his coat and prayer book are missing, which replicate the film scene, coat rack and all.

The first twenty five minutes are just great but there was a noticeable drop in the humour when scenes went on longer than a few minutes, the difference between physical and character comedy at work. The earlier and famous Crofter's cottage scene was one in particular (pity Piro does not impersonate the famous John Laurie, latterly of Dad's Army fame, who memorably played the brooding crofter in the film).

Graham (looking closer to Robert Powell in the 1978 remake than Robert Donat in the 1935 version) plays up the silly ass English accent and takes all the spills and tumbles without so much as crumpling his tweeds. Christinson turns the mysterious woman into a Euro-pudding of accents, blending Marlene 'Dietwich' with Peppy la Pew. Playing the fey and antiquated stooge Pamela is more of ask these days - these prim 'girl's own' ingenues are a lost breed but she makes her the sort of brittle English Rose that would attract a man like Hannay. Piro and Taylor are constantly on the move (they will probably work off half their body weight by the end the run) as the spies, police and sundry Scots that Hannay encounters in his search for the 39 steps. Taylor is great as the heavier of the villains (despite often resembling Baldrick from the Black Adder series). His Musical Hall compare, complete with mispronounced 'prilavage' the best of his many creations. Piro, as Mr Memory in particular, excels in playing weedy little men. I need to confess too that I was a big fan of Couch Potato.

My only criticism were the moments, like the Flying Scotsman train sequence, when the actors deliberately overdid the physical comedy, overdoing the 'different hat = different character' and turned it into self parody. Worse still when Graham steps out of character and tells them to 'get on with it' the elaborate make-believe was spoiled, particularly as that train sequence was one of the best and most ingenious in the entire play. The actual denouement, when the meaning of the 39 steps is revealed is played quite straight, Mr Memory's pathetic little death in the wings while the chorus girls dance and Hannay and Pamela striking cod-heroic poses is one of the many fantastic tableaux (spoiled by another moment of overkilling the different hat=different person routine). Because moments like that and the earlier Flying Scotsman scene were so creatively staged - genuine theatre that was inviting you to join in the make believe - spoiling them the way they did (for me at any rate) was my only and minor quibble. Otherwise this 39 Steps is great fun and a terrific piece of parody staged superbly.

The 39 Steps(2005)
Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the 1915 novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan and the 1935 film adaption by Alfred Hitchcock
Richard Hannay, an adventurer - Marcus Graham
Annabella Schmidt, a mysterious woman of undetermined nationality - Helen Christinson
Pamela, a woman of very determined nationality - Helen Christinson
Master of Ceremonies at a London variety theatre - Tony Taylor
Mr Memory - Grant Piro
Gullible Milkman - Grant Piro
Charwoman - Tony Taylor
Commercial Travellers - Grant Piro & Tony Taylor
Various Policemen - Grant Piro & Tony Taylor
Various Spies - Grant Piro & Tony Taylor
Professor Jordan - Tony Taylor
Louisa, his wife - Grant Piro
Crofter - Grant Piro
Margaret, his wife - Helen Christinson
A Sherriff - Tony Taylor
Chairman at an election rally - Grant Piro
Mr Macquarrie, a speaker at an election rally - Tony Taylor
Highland Pipe and Drum Parade - Grant Piro & Tony Taylor
Mrs McGarrigle, a Scottish hotelier - Tony Taylor
Willie, her husband - Grant Piro
Usherette - Grant Piro
Bert, Master of Ceremonies at the London Palladium - Tony Taylor
Detective Inspector Allbrite - Tony Taylor
further incidental characters played by Grant Piro & Tony Taylor
Director - Maria Aitken
Set and Costume Designer - Peter McKintosh
Lighting Designer - Jon Buswell
Sound Designer - Mic Pool
Featured Music from various Hitchcock films by Bernard Herrmann and additional music by Ray Noble, Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst, Edward Elgar, Dimitri Tiomkin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Georges Auric, Ray Noble, Vivian Ellis and others
Movement Director - Toby Sedgwick
Additional Movement - John Bolton
Playhouse, the Arts Centre
5 April - 10 May 2008
110 minutes (including 1 interval)
Melbourne Theatre Company

picture: Helen Christinson and Marcus Graham [picture: Jeff Busby]