Hitchcock Made Hilarious

The 39 Steps – BrightSide Theatre 

 

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1935 man-on-the-run suspense thriller charges to life in this fast-paced production that focuses on the story’s perfectly-timed comedy. In guest Director Madgalene Spanuello’s production, theatergoers will experience one huge chase scene, with the actors having to hit the ground running. And run they do. Ms. Spanuello’s quartet of talented actors, playing up to 150 different roles, dash madly from a quiet bachelor flat to the London Paladium, onto a fast-moving train, then dangling from a suspension bridge. The race continues across the Scottish moors, to a rural farm, a police station, a baronial estate, into a small motel and back again to London. Three of the four actors are challenged to switch roles at breakneck speed, changing costumes, wigs and accents, often within conversations, leaving the audience breathless.

John Buchan’s melodramatic 1915 spy novel, which became a popular cinematic Hitchcock thriller, was adapted into a comedy for four-actors, by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. In 2005, British
actor and playwright, Patrick Barlow rewrote and polished the script, keeping its technical demands on a smaller scale. After a very successful British run, Barlow’s production opened on Broadway in 2008, where it played for two years, and later reopened Off-Broadway for an even longer run. The comedy has successfully been staged regionally and internationally and even fostered a topnotch National Tour.

In this nonstop laugh fest, Barlow has kept the plot and all of the characters from the original story. However, it’s almost as if the play had been fashioned by Monty Python, Benny Hill or even Charles Ludlam. The result is a raucous, energetic, fast-paced farce that leaves the audience (and one imagines the cast) breathless.

In addition to Madgalene Spanuello’s crackerjack direction, marked by creativity and precise timing, kudos go to her talented technical team. Brandon Lewis’ scenic design is simple, yet effective. His stage set consists of a brick wall, festooned with black and white photographs of all the characters in the play. He’s also cleverly created a quartet of large, mobile trunks that are tricked out to become adaptable to any situation or scenic demand. Working hand-in-hand with Jessica Curtis’s spot-on properties, the effect resembles an improvised touring production. Carley Walker and Rick Molica’s atmospheric lighting and lush sound design also work well together to provide the perfect effect. Molica’s music is even borrowed from several other Hitchcock films, as are many of the references in the play. And the whole affair is managed like clockwork by Stage Manager Becky Robbins.

One of BrightSide Theatre’s founding members, and a frequent performer during the past seven seasons, actor Tin Penavic makes an excellent Richard Hannay, the play’s main character. Whether narrating from his easy chair, crawling across the girders of the Firth of Forth Bridge or trying to maneuver a fence handcuffed to a beautiful brunette, Penavic, in his clipped English dialect, is both dynamic and charming. Lovely Becca Duff, making her BrightSide debut, perfectly plays three quite different, very funny characters: a saucy German spy, a gregarious, young Scottish farmer’s wife and a very proper English lady, who reluctantly becomes involved in Hannay’s escape.

However, most of the play’s hilarity can be credited to Andrew Stachurski and Jonathan Crabtree, a great comic team of actors who tackle the majority of the roles. Playing men, women, children and even props, the duo switch gears at lightning speed. Ms. Spanuello keeps all of her actors in motion and, while the story is intriguing (what the heck are the “39 steps” anyway?), the plot doesn’t drive this production. It’s the finely-tuned combination of creativity and close partnership between director, actors, lighting, sound, set and costume technicians that work together making this a very entertaining, laugh-filled evening of theatre. One of the finest comedies presented by this ever-evolving young theatre company, this production is quite simply Hitchcock made hilarious.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

 

Presented March 9-25 by BrightSide Theatre, at Meiley-Swallow Hall of North Central College, 31 S. Ellsworth Street, Naperville, IL.

Tickets are available by calling 630-447-8497 or by going to www.brightsidetheatre.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.