As I said in my previous post, every year my dad
organises a show and meal in London around Christmas time. In 2011, my parents
went to see The Ladykillers but this
year the four of us went to see The 39
Steps which is being shown until the 19th October – which gives
you no excuse not to see it!
I’d never heard of the title before, but my dad usually
has good taste – we saw Hound of the
Baskervilles at a local theatre the previous month and have seen a number
of interesting productions over the years. The
Criterion was a theatre I hadn’t been to before either so I didn’t know
what to expect. We were sat in the stalls with ‘restricted view’ tickets and as
soon as we took our places, I understood why. The Criterion is certainly unique, with Victorian architecture and
the pillars despite getting in the way, add to its charm. I’ll admit if you’re
short or under the age of 12 or so, you may need a booster cushion and as I
looked around during the performance, a couple of people were struggling to
see. We were also unfortunately positioned behind someone with an afro – I didn’t
know whether to laugh or cry! But the seats were comfortable enough and the
view wasn’t really that bad; I’d have preferred sitting in the dress circle, mind.
The
39 Steps, initially a novel by John Buchan has been adapted for
television and film, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935. If you’re unfamiliar
with the plot, I’ll try and sum it up. Richard Hannay (the main protagonist) is
warned of a spy ring days before a murder takes places in his London flat. As
an obvious suspect, he flees the scene and heads for Scotland. The 39 Steps
obviously being the mystery that needed to be solved – a typical
murder-mystery. This particular production had a comedy element, which of
course made it more entertaining. There were only four actors, who played what
could easily be 100 characters between them and Andrew Alexander who played the
lead role was excellent.
There were a number of funny moments through the play and
from the off, you knew it was to be a light-hearted take on the original. As Annabella
Schmidt tells Hannay of the murders, two spies are outside his flat – when he
looked out of his window, two characters came on stage, standing next to a land
post, evidently spying. Obviously, they left the stage when he drew back the
curtain and so madness ensued, with the two spies running on and off the stage,
carrying a large lamp post! My favourite bit, however, was when Hannay was
fleeing the police in Scotland – at one point he was hanging from the Forth Bridge
(but I won’t spoil it by explaining how – let’s just say, it was very clever!).
There were always surprises as well, and particularly on the on-the-run scenes,
you could never predict what was going to happen and this bumped up the
entertainment value.
I definitely recommend going to see The 39 Steps if anything, to see the actors constantly having to
switch roles.
Prices range from £10 to £61.25.
Ooh I walk past posters for this practically every day but I'd never given it much thought. It sounds very good though, I may go and see it. x
ReplyDeleteI definitely recommend it. I'm not usually into those kinda murder mystery storylines but because it was more comical than serious, I enjoyed it! Plus at a tenner, you can't really go wrong (that said not sure how bad the seats are for that price!) x
ReplyDelete