OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill.—It’s no easy thing to adapt a movie into a stage play. A movie can use lavish background sets and fascinating locations that are unavailable to the theater. In a film, everything can be stopped, re-filmed, and edited post production, while in theater you can’t just stop the action and try again if actors make a mistake. The action in film is told in images while in theater, primarily, images have to be converted into dialogue. A film is a recording that has already happened while theater happens in the here and now.
Those are some of the reasons that cinema is a much safer medium than theater, and why “The 39 Steps,” now playing at the Drury Lane Theatre, is such an inventive accomplishment.
‘The 39 Steps’
While on vacation in London, lonely Canadian bachelor Richard Hannay meets secret agent Annabella Smith. When she is killed in his apartment, he unwittingly becomes involved in an international spy ring. He becomes a fugitive to elude the police who are hunting him for the murder, and he has to stop Professor Jordan (who is recognizable by the missing joint of his pinky finger) from sending secrets out of the country.
The theatrical production overcomes many more challenges than the film. Staged by director Johanna McKenzie Miller, who does a great job of enhancing the nail-biting suspense of the thriller, the show holds the audience on the edge-of-their seats throughout. Four actors portray more than 150 characters, which require incredible changes of costumes and characterizations, as well as warp-speed timing.
From Lee Fiskness’s lighting, to Anthony Churchill’s projections of chase scenes, to performances by a fantastic ensemble, to Angela Weber Miller’s fabulous revolving set design, this revival, which Drury Lane first presented in 2012, works on every level.
Moreover, Angela Weber Miller’s terrific backdrop design is inspired as it rushes from a variety of locations that move the action from a London theater, to a speeding train, to a deserted Scottish road, to an eerie inn, to a wealthy mansion—all adding to the exhilarating man-on-the-run cliff-hanger.
Of course, there’s more to the power of this whodunit than the wonderful design elements. The performers are at the top-of-their-game. Indeed, the formidable actors are essential to making this play as compelling as any of Hitchcock’s intriguing flicks.
Engaging Gavin Lee gives a superb portrayal of Richard Hannay as a man with a charming sense of humor who comes across a mysterious woman at a London theater, has to escape a police net, and becomes involved in international espionage. He not only has to clear his name but has to save England from villainous traitors.
Along the way of his race to save himself and the free-world, Hannay comes across a variety of interesting characters who include a dense lingerie salesmen, nosy innkeepers, fierce thugs and snobby aristocrats, all of them played by athletic comedians Zuhdi Boueri and Tom DeTrinis.
Furthermore, he meets up with a beautiful blonde, Pamela, portrayed by wonderful Caitlin Gallogly, when he rushes into her train compartment, shocking her with unwanted kisses to escape the police. Later she singles him out to the police, becomes handcuffed to Hannay, and later changes her mind about him when she hears a conversation that makes her realize that he’s been telling the truth and is innocent.
This marvelous combination of suspense, intrigue, and romantic comedy makes for a wonderful satire on the cloak-and-dagger thriller that also celebrates the genre. If you’re a Hitchcock fan, a mystery aficionado, or enjoy fast-paced excitement, you will love this play.
But even if the espionage drama is not your thing, you cannot help but get a kick out of this “39 Steps” inventive transition from film-to-theater. A fun-loving production, it offers great spine-tingling summer escapism.
