The dynamic cast of S&Co's The 39 Steps. All photos by Kevin Sprague.
In the world of pre-war British espionage, it's all fun and games until someone loses a major national security secret, at which point, quite naturally, things just get hysterical. At least that's according to playwright and actor Patrick Barlow's The 39 Steps. His farcical spoof on John Buchan's 1915 novel, which is also the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1935 film, has finally made its way to Lenox in a a gloriously, side-splitting tale of espionage, vanity, lust, and love served up with a giant stock pot of total absurdity. The director of the current production of the popular show, Jonathan Croy pulls out all of the stops (including animal puppetry and quasi-interpretive dance) in order to give audiences a borderline-schizophrenic evening of delirious comedy.
In this theatrical version, the plot is the only element of the production that remains true to spy genre form. Richard Hannay (played by the ever-earnest Jason Asprey), an indifferent 37-year-old bachelor living in London, decides to fight his boredom with a trip to the theater. In the middle of a memory act show a mysterious woman fires shots into the air and then asks Hannay for help. Because she is beautiful, and because Hannay cannot resist a beautiful woman – ever – he takes her to his flat and discovers that this damsel in distress, Annabelle Schmidt (played by the stately chameleon Elizabeth Aspenlieder), is being hunted by spies. Schmidt hints at secrets related to powerful weaponry, secrets that, if revealed, will obliterate England's national security. But before Annabelle can relay all of the information to Hannay, she is murdered by the two men across the street (played by Josh Aaron McCabe and David Joseph) right there in the ol' boy's flat. It is up to Hannay, who is a prime suspect in Schmidt's murder, to clear his name and save the world, all within two hours' time. Fortunately, Schmidt has revealed to Hannay just enough to send him running to Scotland, where he meets a global plethora of interesting and funny characters (most of them played, in dizzying succession, by McCabe and Josesph); the constant hat-, gender-, accent-, and side-switching they provide are the elements that generate the laughs and entertainment. Aspenlieder is brilliant as the very German, uber-dominant (and yes, even sexy) Schmidt, with her black bobbed haircut and her glittering evening gown. And she performs a complete about-face from the sultry spy (even dying in a seductive way) to a sexually and culturally repressed Scottish country girl to Pamela Edwards, the prim and indignant Englishwoman who eventually wins Hannay's heart (but first nearly sends him to his death with her big mouth).
Even more so than Aspenlieder's foray into different personalities and time zones, McCabe and Joseph send this production soaring, literally, into cacophonous high comedy, with an actual remote-controlled plane that flies through a delighted, though somewhat tremulous audience. With the ease of a con artist (or someone with multiple personalities) McCabe swings lucidly between at least three Mrs. Doubtfire-esque female characters and several more male characters, ranging from a dim bulb Pilot named Boots Diamond to a living but disgruntled Christmas tree by the name of O. Tannenbaum, who drolly marks the cozy ending of the play. Joseph flexes the same versatility muscles, mostly as a wing man to McCabe's antics. He also is capable of taking full advantage of a poignant moment as Mr. Memory, who is charged with “storing” the weaponry secrets that the other side so badly wants. Gunned down in the theater (the play ends where it begins) he seems almost relieved that he will die, thus freeing himself from having to contain the secret any longer. Even with an outstanding overbite and a distinctly “Eastern” accent, Joseph miraculously turns the scene into a legitimate slice of tragedy.
This 39 Steps, directed with surreal energy by Croy, is a rollicking, borderline absurd night at the theater that takes advantage of the comic nature of stereotypes and deeply-imbedded social cues. And while there is no set to speak of, Croy, along with lighting designer Stephen Ball and sound designer Michael Pfeiffer, makes good use of windows, trunks, and ultra-dramatic music and shadows to retain the Hitchcockian essence of the production, right down to the monotone lighting. Costume designer Mary Readinger takes this a step further with black overcoats, sultry evening gowns (Joseph dons a silver number as Louisa Jordan, the professor's wife), and hats galore. Readinger also likes herself a wig or three and is flamboyant in her use of thick red mops and messy gray comb-overs which provide hysterical contrast to Hannay's more well-put-together, suave but sincere demeanor. Because, after all, you have to look damn good when you save the world and get the girl. —Nichole DupontThe 39 Steps Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan and the movie of Alfred Hitchcock Shows through November 4, 2012 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.
