The 39 Steps

An excellent show and the good news is it is on tour so you can almost undoubtedly still catch it.

I am very fond of The 39 Steps, whether it be in book form or the films with Robert Donat, Kenneth More, or Robert Powell - and the latest BBC adaptation that I can remember starring Rupert Penry-Jones. Hence I was dead keen not to miss this tongue-in-cheek stage version, even though I spent the afternoon suppressing a persistent cough I've had for over a month (...mask, bottle of water, and boiled sweets...).

...And it did not disappoint (despite the distracting cough and worry over our enforced convenient-but-time-restricted parking right outside the theatre!). The staging was delightful and creative - and extraordinarily challenging, due to the wide ranging scenes covered in the plot: from apartment interiors, music hall theatre, train compartments, acrobatics on the train roof, crofters cottage, political meeting hall, hotel bedroom, and police station, through to the wild chases across the moors (o yes - defying expectations, it was all included) - and all taken on by four actors, playing 139 roles!

Most of the versions of the story mimic the earliest film, as it introduces a female love interest not present in Buchan's 1915 novel, (no women to be found there!), and this production is no exception. Modern tellings of the tale - when not totally rewritten - almost have to be tongue-in-cheek comedy due to the "outdated attitudes, language and cultural depictions which may cause offence today" nature of the overall chauvinistic story - even when the most gross examples of misogyny and xenophobia have been expurgated.