This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour saw The 39 Steps at the invite of The Alexandra.
By Dave Massey x.com/BrumHour
Review: The 39 Steps at The Alexandra
⭐⭐⭐⭐”A Very silly comedy caper”
Directed by Maria Aitken, Tour Directed by Nicola Samer, From an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon adapted by Patrick Barlow
Told with just four actors on stage. The 39 Steps is transformed into a surreal farce for the stage in this comedic adaption.
Tom Byrne plays Richard Hannay, a man who gets pulled into a murder mystery adventure littered with spy story incidents, dodgy accents and an ever-increasing number of people who think he’s a killer. The other three actors, Safeena Ladha, Eugene McCoy, and Maddie Rice play all of the other characters.
I’ve not seen ANY previous version of The 39 Steps so I don’t know if this hindered or helped me. The melodrama onstage is balanced out by the humour and certainly would appeal to those who love The Play That Goes Wrong and those types of shows.
I couldn’t hear a few of the lines and couldn’t tell if this was intentional or not, hearing actors speak directly from the stage is great as it makes for a really intimate performance, but only if they are facing forwards. That said the performances are pretty charming and evoke old school BBC/West End and Black and White spy films.
The stage is pretty simple and looks like the back of a theatre at most times throughout the performance adding to the storytelling style and there’s a fantastic moment of shadow theatre to behold. There are nods to Hitchcock to look out for throughout.
With plenty of tickets for £20 this is a fun two hours (Including interval) which I’d have paid to see. The 39 Steps is at The Alexandra until 8th June 2024. Book tickets here: atgtickets.com/shows/the-39-steps/the-alexandra-theatre-birmingham.
