The 39 Steps

This production had something for everyone – whether you’re a rare visitor to the theatre or a theatre junkie.

Prepare for entertainment by the train load, physical comedy, sharp acting, visual effects and more funny accents that you can poke a stick at.

The 39 Steps was a serious film by Alfred Hitchcock based on a thrilling novel. Patrick Barlow, one of the world’s leading theatrical cast shrinkers, adapted the epic for four actors.

Juggling the most roles were the umbilical brothers (David Collins and Shane Dundas). So brilliant was the duo, that it felt like the play was written for them. The two clowns played everything from gangsters, milk men, salesman, pilots, policemen, spies and a dour jealous Scottish farmer. Collins and Dundas carved up their roles with panache.

Ian Stenlake as the leading man had a much more limited wardrobe. The rack in his dressing room was by comparison on the thin side, as he had just one role the central character of Richard Hannay. His character was bored with life in 1935 when onto his lap leapt a murder mystery linked to a German spy ring. Stenlake had great energy wriggling in around murdered beauties, in and out of window frames, and squeezing past farcical train passengers.

Lisa McCune played three roles and was a surprise packet. Not normally known for comedy, the leading lady had the funniest bastardized German and Scottish accents. Her Scottish jig was also bonnie.

There is a nod to the film heritage of the work. The combination of projections, sound effects and cast contortions was an object lesson in how to replicate action on stage.

Director Damien Ryan showed his mischievous side in this production. He’s been as busy as one of those umbilical brothers having to change costume mid-scene.

First adapting his most ambitious Shakespeare yet – The Player Kings, and has just leapt into the rehearsal floor for the Hayes Theatre season of the Steve Martin musical Bright Star.

Head to the opera house and its other venues across Australia for a night of fun and farce.

David Spicer

Photographer: Cameron Grant