One of the
key characters in The 39 Steps, the Reps last celluloid to stage presentation, is
the Memory Man. Mr Memory I think they called him, but my memory ain’t what it
used to be. His was. Knew everything. Distance in miles between Winnipeg and
Ontario or somewhere or other and the combined weight of Henry V111’s children.
Oh all right he wasn’t asked these things, but he was asked lots of others. Am
I right Sir? he engagingly asked. Richard Hannay, pennies falling into place,
revisited his theatre show and asked him about the Thirty Nine Steps. Our Mr
Memory regurgitated Hitchcock’s Macguffin, google it, and got shot for his
troubles. He died beautifully, a complex formula revealed, and a plaintive ‘Am
I right Sir?’ echoed around the theatre. There was not a dry eye in the house.
Probably because they had been laughing so much. Buchan’s book is pleasurable
nonsense, Hitchcock’s film with the unsurpassable Robert Donat as the hapless hero
Hannay is equal to it, and Patrick Barlow’s zany interpretation releases the
underlying comedy in imaginative style. I reckon Hitchcock, mischievously
handcuffing a 1930’s heroine to the beleaguered fugitive, would have approved.
If you are chasing a Macguffin, make it fun.
I reckon the
Rep could have achieved that if they had just wheeled out their classy actors
and amplified the script. These four were good enough to bring it to bizarre
life from a rehearsed reading. But add in some basic staging and a few costumes
and hats and chairs and you have a sure fire winner to end the season. I went
on the first night due to holiday commitments and the pleasures of the
Cotswolds, Chipping Campden, may have blurred my Mr Memory expertise. But I
remember that I laughed a lot, I remember that I was impressed by the
performances, I remember that the staging was occasionally clumsy and I would
have preferred the elimination of assisting stage hands, and I remember, critical
sod that I am, that the sparkling narrative had
a few dips. But most of all I remembered four excellent portrayals. John
O’Leary’s nicely judged Hannay, an innocent involved in uncontrollable events,
Kelley Sarson’s supremely accomplished feminine interests, and Joe Butcher’s
and Matt Flitton’s bewildering inventive characterisations. Director Bekka
Prideaux was blessed with this lot. You forgave the dips because you just knew
that more fun was to follow. Am I right Sir?
It would
have been interesting to go back on the last night. Would the sharpening of
line delivery enhance the production or would the director and actors obvious
love for their theatrical vehicle fatally flaw it? I doubt the latter. First
night gremlins were dismissed with astonishing ease and humour, suggesting that
this was a team firmly in control. That was clear throughout an evening which
thoroughly entertained. They hit the heights with an hilarious train ride,
switching hats in profusion, and an equally bewildering hotel booking in the
remote highlands. Hannay and his handcuffed girl played the bedroom scene with
sexual aplomb and Mr Butcher and Mr Flitton milked every moment of the strange
proprietors. I almost wet myself, it’s my age, at a weird and muffled phone
call by Mr Butcher but I cannot for the life of me remember why. This Thirty
Nine Steps was a bit like that. Mr O’Leary and Miss Sarson gave the piece a
realistic central focus and the other actor boys played all the peripheral characters,
including two hilarious squawking hawks to suggest Scottish desolation, and
they worked or failed on the machine gun principle. You can’t always hit the
target but when they did it was all excellent first night fun.
Fred Rayment splashed in lots of effects, mood music underlined the action in the expected style, and the whole lot was a feet warming giggle. It ain’t Ibsen, although we had a hint with the removal of our heroine’s stockings by the handcuffed Hannay, but it was a jolly evening. You expect that in the July slot. End the season on a laugh is the Rep’s motto. And Bekka Prideaux and her magnificent cast did that for me in spades. When you like something you forgive its faults. And I liked this. Four bloody good actors chasing the Macguffin in madcap style. Death and glory and a tongue firmly fixed in Mr Hannay’s cheek. Hitchcock with comic knobs. Am I right Sir?
Roy Hall
Fred Rayment splashed in lots of effects, mood music underlined the action in the expected style, and the whole lot was a feet warming giggle. It ain’t Ibsen, although we had a hint with the removal of our heroine’s stockings by the handcuffed Hannay, but it was a jolly evening. You expect that in the July slot. End the season on a laugh is the Rep’s motto. And Bekka Prideaux and her magnificent cast did that for me in spades. When you like something you forgive its faults. And I liked this. Four bloody good actors chasing the Macguffin in madcap style. Death and glory and a tongue firmly fixed in Mr Hannay’s cheek. Hitchcock with comic knobs. Am I right Sir?
Roy Hall
