The Tricycle Theatre’s current hit production of a stage version of John Buchan’s thrice-filmed
The 39 Steps is making the leap to the West End’s Criterion Theatre. The show will begin performances there on 15 September and officially open there on 20 September.
Catherine McCormack, Charles Edwards,
Simon Gregor & Rupert Degas in The 39 Steps
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This stage adaptation by Patrick Barlow was first seen at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds last year, where it was directed by Fiona Buffini, and subsequently opened (with a new director, Maria Aitken, at the helm) at Kilburn’s Tricycle Theatre on 14 August. It runs there to 9 September.
The Tricycle cast of four features Catherine McCormack, Rupert Degas, Charles Edwards and Simon Gregor. They will all reprise their performances, in which they play over 150 characters between them.
In his Theatre.com Review of the Tricycle production, Mark Cook wrote, “In taking Buchan's story, Hitchcock's most crucial addition was humour; Barlow's version has taken that several steps further, using just four actors to play some 150 characters and making a constant joke out of it. Maria Aitken's sprightly, enjoyable, not to say slightly camp, production is all gung-ho, chocks away and stiff upper lips… There is plenty of neat staging and observation: the use of Hitchcock-style music adds great tension to the story and the many chase sequences. A scene on board a train is atmospherically staged with steam and flickering lights, and climaxes with an extraordinarily convincing train-top sequence with minimal fuss or effect. Silly visual jokes feature heavily, too: one of my favourites was a signpost to a castle with huge cawing black birds on it—a nice nod to Hitchcock there. An aerial chase is even realised with lo-tech shadow puppetry.”