'The 39 Steps' at Criterion Theatre, London

A Review of an Award-Winning Adaptation of John Buchan's Novel

Oct 16, 2009

'The 39 Steps' is not a play to be sniffed at; it is a winner of the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award as well as two 2008 Tony Awards.

In the stage version of The 39 Steps, currently playing at the Criterion Theatre in London, Richard Hanney is bored and dissatisfied with his London life. The gentlemen's clubs, plays and moving pictures just don't do it for him anymore. However, his life undergoes a drastic change on the discovery of a German femme fatale - dead in his living room. Hanney goes on the run, without knowing who or what he is fleeing from. Life for Richard Hannay is about to get very interesting indeed...

The director of the latest theatre version (adapted by Patrick Barlow) of Hitchcock’s classic 1935 thriller and John Buchan’s 1915 novel made a conscious decision when transfering this play to the London stage, following its move from the West Yorkshire Playhouse. She decided to tickle the sensibilities of her audience, playing on a characteristic mixture of London courtesy and impatience in sketching a social caricature that is both tongue-in-cheek and charmingly nostalgic.

The result is The 39 Steps – a rollicking and breathless adventure that trails the tweedy Richard Hannay (John Hopkins) as he is pursued by police from his genteel London apartment to the rugged Scottish Highlands for a crime that he did not commit.

The cast of four actors is set the challenge of playing a myriad of colourful and unusual characters – approximately 40. They pull this off remarkably well, with special credit due to the clownish couple Stephen Critchlow and Stephen Ventura. As Hopkins (all pencil-thin moustache and twitching eyebrows) charms and bluffs his way through the action, Critchlow and Ventura tirelessly switch between roles in a flurry of costumes and accents. Meanwhile, Natalie Walter plays the plaintive shrew that finds herself tied (literally) to a criminal.

A Comic Delight

The triumph of the play is its ingenuity in maximising a minimal stage set with a slap-stick Fawlty Towers style of physical comedy that is still snappy enough to pull off mime, shadow puppetry and recurrent use of the same props.

The 39 Steps has a haphazard and raffish feel to it – as if it were put together in under 20 minutes. It is no less loveable for it. Indeed, its strongest asset is its unpredictability and the sharp comic timing of its multi-talented cast.

The copyright of the article 'The 39 Steps' at Criterion Theatre, London in British Modern Theatre is owned by Alexandra Szydlowska. Permission to republish 'The 39 Steps' at Criterion Theatre, London in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.