The Cape Playhouse presents THE 39 STEPS by Patrick Barlow. From the novel by John Buchan. From the movie by Alfred Hitchcock. Directed by Kimberly Senior. Scenic Design by Frank J. Olivia. Costume Design by Sarina Fellows. Lighting Design by M.L.Geiger. Sound Design by Joanna Lynne Staub. Fight & Intimacy Choreography by Unkledave’s Fight-House. Dialect Coaching by JDR. At The Cape Playhouse at the Cape Cod Center for the Arts, Dennis, MA through September 7, 2024.
By Linda Chin
Summer is officially over, our post-Labor Day calendars are filling up with back-to-school, back-to-work responsibilities, and theater companies across New England are launching their 2024-25 seasons, but Cape Cod and the dunes of Provincetown need not just be a lovely memory in your Rear Window. There’s still time to head North by Northeast (from NYC), or South by Southeast (from Boston) to The Cape Playhouse to catch a performance of The 39 Steps, a mystery play adapted from a 1915 Scottish spy novel and the classic 1935 adventure film by Alfred Hitchcock.
Like the Playhouse’s spectacular season opener Tick, Tock…Boom that I saw back in June (a musical about the career of RENT creator Jonathan Larson performed by a cast of three), The 39 Steps has a cast of four. Deftly directed by Kimberly Senior, a tremendously talented quartet of actors plays over 150 characters, delivering virtuoso performances that redefine the term ensemble. The fast-paced production (two hours in length, including one intermission) practically flies by, with witty writing and superb stagecraft leading to the reveal of whodunit in the production’s (and show-within-a-show’s) climax.
Set in London and Scotland, The 39 Steps includes a night at the theater, with a pair of tuxedoed actors donning red noses doing a “Mr. Memory” question and answer act. The clowns are played by the versatile actors Octavia Chavez-Richmond (a recent alum of Brown/Trinity Rep) and Broadway and Off-Broadway stage veteran Evan Zes.
The leading man and Hitchcockian hero in The 39 Steps is Richard Hannay, an ordinary man with a rather dull life (a delightfully expressive Kareem Bandealy). The love interest and Hitchcockian femme fatale is Annabelle Schmidt, an intriguing woman with a thick accent of indeterminate origin (a vivacious Lori Vega, who also plays two other female characters, Pamela and Margaret). Richard meets Annabelle and (awkwardly) takes her home, and they continue to (awkwardly) chat over cocktails. Shortly thereafter, she is murdered. “The 39 Steps” refers to a mysterious espionage organization that wants access to top-secret information and begins a manhunt to find the murderer – the bald, mustached, hazel-eyed Hannay, whose photograph is splashed all over the dailies – and was last seen with Schmidt the spy – the prime suspect.
If you still have doubts that this inventive production is not your cup of tea, consider The 39 Steps as a concoction that blends a Hitchcock film, a juicy spy novel, a dash of Monty Python, some Mel Blanc, and keeps you engaged with lines and musical snippets from Hitchcock’s masterpieces. Part of the fun was chatting with other audience members at intermission about these clues and references!
Lastly, as someone who missed the play’s US premiere at the BU Theatre by the Huntington Theatre Company in 2007, and last experienced the story from the 1935 classic film version decades ago, The Cape Playhouse’s production was pure pleasure. Seeing the storytelling supported by the designers’ screen-to-stage translations of an on-stage plane crash, a vintage automobile blocked by a flock of sheep, a moving railway car, a train top chase, running in slow motion, and riotous bursts of color to a “black-and-white” story was a revelation. Bravo to Artistic Director Eric Rosen for a season to savor. For tickets and information, go to: https://capeplayhouse.com/39-steps-2024/
