Mar 21 2008
Theatre comedy - The 39 Steps
We’re just back from an adaptation of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps. I had been a bit lax and hadn’t really noticed that it had received a comedy award rather than a drama award. I was expecting a somewhat-straight rendering of the story, but it was straight in the same way that The Muppet Christmas Carol is an accurate retelling of Dickens’ story.
I had also only read the book, so I didn’t realise that none of the three films were anything like the book. This stage version apparently uses the Hitchcock plot but hams things up to an incredible degree. That’s not to say it’s difficult though; suspension of disbelief is definitely required for the book and it doesn’t take much to highlight the inherent silliness in the story. With a cast of four, including the hero and one woman, the two supporting males have a really hard time of filling out the full cast of policemen, villains, magistrates, theatre-goers and hotel owners.
There was a bit of slapstick and lots of visual comedy, mostly playing on the conventions of drama and bad theatre — sound effects that don’t come in at the right moment, really badly hidden puppeteers and so on. It surprised me, all this humour, but it didn’t take me long to get in to different style.
Tonight was also a signed performance so that added an extra interest, though it was really hard to keep an eye on the visual stuff on stage and the interpreter at the side. But there were bits and pieces I could follow reasonably well.
I’d definitely recommend this version if you can see it — it seems to have been all over West End and Broadway so it might appear near you soon.