Reviewed: The 39 Steps

A frenetic, hilarious farce from Kronos productions: The 39 Steps brings together all that is wonderful and ridiculous about the spy genre.

With no knowledge of the play’s content or theme, having not even seen the poster, I arrived at the Assembly rooms with no preconceptions of the night’s performance; only a vague sense of excitement at experiencing a production I’d never come across before. Looking through the programme I saw a cast and crew that represents the finest that Durham Student Theatre has to offer. After learning of the original play’s successful six year West End run, and considering the high quality of Kronos productions’ recent ‘Salome’, my expectations began to rise.

My high hopes for the production were at first a little disappointed. There seemed to be a few opening night teething problems that gave the first few scenes a juddery feel, and did not let the comedic side of the script fulfil its potential. The atmosphere of the audience was a little unsure – there was laughter, but not as much as there should have been, and the actors seemed to falter a little without the response of the audience. This was perhaps owing to the difficulty of ascertaining the tone of such an individual play, as Durham (as long as I’ve been here) has not seen a comedy quite like this one.

Towards the middle of the first act, however, the play completely took off, proving itself to be all that it had promised. The cast seemed to find their stride last night as they began to fully exploit the script, and the audience was utterly hooked from then on.

Momentum builds throughout the first act as the play becomes more ludicrous and involving, the cast’s natural comedic talent shining through to joyous effect. With minimal set and costumes, the ability and conviction of the four actors somehow manages to create an engrossing world, which is as tense as it is silly. Joe Burke is simply excellent, playing his character relatively straight, and providing a grounded source of identification with the audience, whilst the chaos and hilarity escalates around him. Felix Stevenson and Tom McNulty threaten to steal the show as they whirl through a myriad of characters – the slapstick and quick changes striking just the right note of clownishness.

Unfortunately the moments of relative calm at times let down the scenes of screwball-esque comedy. The first half ended with a scene that narrowly missed its climactic pinnacle, as the pace dropped significantly without quite raising the tension enough to balance it, and ensure the audience’s response to the plot turn – though the other elements of the scene did get a lot of well-deserved laughs. Later, other scenes also suffered from a loss of pace, which could have been improved with more rehearsal to guarantee a slick and effective delivery. These small and rectifiable faults did not, however, significantly affect the enjoyment of the production, and were more than made up for by some absolutely brilliant moments.

One of these moments, for me the highlight of the show, is between Joe Burke and Elissa Churchill – where they both give a truly stellar performance. The tension is palpable as the two sit in almost absolute silence, interjected occasionally with the odd word. The smallest change in facial expression or intonation of voice, last night sent the audience into absolute hysterics. The pair even brilliantly dealt with a prop malfunction, using their initiative and comedic talent to make the moment even funnier than it might have been otherwise. The play maintained this level of quality to the end – leaving the audience happily satisfied, and their stomach muscles aching.

This fond and satirical look back at early Hitchcockian spy thrillers is truly a delight which, with its first night behind it, may tonight reach theatrical perfection.