Who would have thought a goofball comedy-melodrama could have come out of a thriller novel a hundred years old – even if it evolved into a 1935 movie from a young Alfred Hitchcock? ”The 39 Steps”, the current offering from Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble, is a slam-bang piece of work, amusing on its own, layering in sly references to other Hitchcock works and showing off some extremely agile work from a very small cast. And as an added bonus, SATE has managed to make nearly every word understandable in a venue, The Chapel, that tends to swallow dialogue at the least excuse.
A young-ish man about town, Richard Hannay (Pete Winfrey) complains about being bored and hies himself to the theater. It's actually a music hall, more like vaudeville to the contemporary eye, and as he settles in, an attractive woman sits down next to him. Chaos ensues, the woman begs him to shelter her because she's a spy – and more chaos ensues. It's the sort of “ordinary man caught up in an extraordinary situation not of his making” that Hitchcock used so often, and who knows if John Buchan, who wrote the original novel, inspired him originally?
Winfrey is the only actor who plays a single role, and he's clearly having fun with it, especially when he preens.. The woman in the music hall and two other women are all Rachel Tibbets, going from cold and dangerously seductive to warm but extremely moral in very short time indeed, almost letting us forget entirely they're the same body and brain. Opening night, she also handled with considerable aplomb what appeared to be a nearly major costume malfunction – it honestly appeared to be a design feature until an offstage adjustment righted things.
The other two people, described as Clown 1 and Clown 2 are Carl Overly, Jr., and Ellie Schwetye. The loads they're tasked with are immense, fast character changes and perhaps more challenging, fast costume changes, because they handle nearly all the rest of the lines for – well, I lost count but at least six characters each, including one pair in which Ms Schwetye plays the husband and Mr. Overly plays the wife. Plus the changing accents for each one. Overly, especially, is pretty amazing, especially in a speech near the end of the play.
The homage to Hitchcock is fun. Someone pointed out that the music during the intermission is from his “Vertigo”, there's a scene that reminds us of Cary Grant fleeing an airplane, some discussion of a rear window, and more you'll find if you enjoyed his work.
Some fine behind-the scenes work headed up by director Kirsten Wylder, who assembled a working group that included Schwetye doubling in sound design. The range of English and Scottish accents come to us with the assistance of dialect coach Pamela Reckamp. As to the costumes – the program could have included a note that said, “No tartans were harmed in the making of this production”, because there were plenty of them around. But other things, too, all made for fast, fast, fast changes. The set, which may have helped with the quality of the sound acuity, is by Scott deBroux.
And at this time of year, when we tend to start thinking about such things, it'd be perfect to take older kids to, especially budding movie buffs. Good fun.
The 39 Steps
Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble
The Chapel
6238 Alexander Drive (off Skinker)
through November 14