There are many in the theatre world who spend the majority of time up their own arseholes, forever looking down upon commercial theatre. Our faces curdle like sour milk at the thought of being caught at Dirty Dusting, we dry up at the idea of Menopause, The Musical, and we sneer at the producers who treat their source material like their very own Babushka doll. My own nose rose like the Titanic’s rear end when I was first asked to preview The 39 Steps.
But if ever there was a show not to be judged by it’s a cover, then this it is this. Four actors bring to life 250 parts, escaping from trains, crashing planes and being chased across the Scottish Highlands with a death-defying finale at the London Palladium, all done with the use of minimal props. “There is a rather beautiful love story in there so I had to be careful to be true to the thriller and the romance” says writer Patrick Barlow, commenting on the purpose of “To keep the audience in suspense and keep them engaged with the romantic entanglement of the characters. If I got that right it should work as the comedy goes without saying once you have four people up a ladder.”
Even though the piece is very comical, there is a semi-serious underlying theme. Do you think that that is essential for comedy to have any real effect? Does it need to be about something?
Oh god yes. I mean you can have an out and out farce but I think to really make it work your heart really has to be in it. The great comedies; the Shakespeares and the Checkovs, have very funny moments but are about real people in real predicaments. To truly work so that you are genuinely touched, you need to move from gales of laughter to being very touched.
Do you think this is something that many productions forget about? Do they play for the laugh rather than allowing for it to be the product of some underlying tragedy or mishap?
That’s my particular passion with this piece. That there is a real flesh and blood story, a real love affair. Hannay at the beginning is a very depressed man. He’s about to give up. But then he decided to go to the theatre. But on this adventure he meets these women who complete him. It’s quite the journey. As in Shakespeare, you don’t simply meet someone and that’s that. You argue and battle and win each other over.
Four actors in this production play 250 roles. How early on did you decide to keep it that small?
The producer came to me because he was familiar with my work in which I did big epic shows with just two people. So he came to me with a script that wasn’t really working because it was based on the book. They hadn’t thought of using the film so I decided to use that as it was more challenging and more people knew it. People love seeing how you adapt their favorite bit for the stage.
How do you maintain the audience’s sense of reality?
It was very hard to cast this play because you have to have people who are very good at playing straight, as the hero and the girlfriend have to be very straight, play it with passion and heart and a romance. And at the same time for her and the two other guys who play all the other parts have to be brilliantly versatile. I write the words, Alfred Hitchcock and me. But if you don’t get the actors who can do it…
What does one gain from the staging of this work that they don’t get out of a screening?
It’s live theatre, where the audience joins in with the laughter and the pleasure of being there. It’s a communal act: that is why I do theatre. There aren’t very many activities you can do in which an audience find themselves working like that.
The script calls for an escape from a train, a police chase across the Scottish Highlands and a finale at the London Palladium. This is obviously challenging to stage. Do you think that’s a problem with theatre, that people just don’t think outside the box?
You’re absolutely right, I absolutely agree with you. I did the Zulu war with two actors, pens and a packing case: that was all we needed to do the whole movie of Zulu, with just with two actors. My character exclaims: “Look there are ten thousand Zulus on the sky line” and we had them displayed behind the audience. And, I swear to you, the audience all turned around because WE could see them. Imagination is an amazing thing. It’s the challenge and also the ingenuity that are needed.
The 39 Steps will run at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on Tue 25th, Wed 26th, Thu 27th, Fri 28th, Sat 29th May 2010 and Mon 31st, Tue 1st, Wed 2nd, Thu 3rd, Fri 4th, Sat 5th June 2010.
Words Caomhan Keane
