REVIEW PLAYHOUSE :The 39 STEPS

The 39 Steps
Playhouse
By Peter Grant

There are 30 steps to theatrical heaven this Christmas. Walk this way... but don't talk to any strangers.
Audience participation is essential and this time it does not involve being squirted with a water pistol.
Go to the Everyman's superlative Dick Whitington for that type of Christmas caper.
No, this is where you use your own imagination to accompany the special effects created by an incredibly multi-versatile cast of four.
The set maybe minimalist (I must look up that word) but the ingenuity throughout is striking.
John Buchan's Boys Own-styled book, written in 1915, worked on so many levels.
It was also seen as a warning to many lose-lipped types that they should be aware of careless talk, which could and would, cost lives.
The 39 Steps was and still is a cracking adventure yarn and has been interpreted by the likes of Alfred Hitchcock in his 1935 film version starring Robert Donat.
Kenneth More took on the mantle in 1959 and in 1978 Robert Powell did it justice.
Sadly, there was a very poor BBC TV re-make version in 2008 which was comical without meaning to be. Rupert Penry-Jones was the leading man.
This Tony award-winning stage production stands alone. A triumph from start to its action-packed 90th minute. There's even a real Christmassy feel to the fab, feel good finale.
Actor Dugald Bruce-Lockhart - has an apt name for a man playing a tweed suited, pipe-smoking character.
Dugald is perfectly cast as the splendid hero Richard Hannay who is at a loose end and ventures out to a show to see a music hall throwback - Mr Memory.
Dirty deeds abound as he gets embroiled in a spy ring, which introduces him to a German femme fatale and a knife-in-the-back murder case to a bonnie and equally eerie Scotland, and then back to the London Palladium to tie up any ends.
Patrick Barlow's re-adaptation works on every count. The humor is wonderfully weaved in amid the nicely-played romance.
The fab four cast are individually and collectively outstanding.
Katherine Kingsley shines in her three very different roles while Richard Brain and Dan Starkey take on a whole host of characters that, at times, were reminiscent of the creations in TV's League of Gentlemen. Dry ice also makes many guest appearances.
A real Mist-eryt!
This slick comedy, as well being a homage to the Hitchcock film genre, genuinely tells a story with a beginning, middle and satisfying end and there's also a piece of shadow puppetry that is simple yet very stylish.
Step out now to the Playhouse for a real treat.
Suspend belief for an evening - it's worth it and go on, you can tell people about it - they'll thank you for the recommendation.

9/10 I Spy A Classic