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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Cast and crew perfectly in step
Don't take a fence: James Weetman as Richard Hannay finds fences a problem when handcuffed to Pamela played by Samantha Holden The 39 Steps Hall Green Little Theatre ***** FEW plays are as daft as Patrick Barlow's
manic adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1935 film, itself based
on John Buchan's classic 1915 spy thriller, but to pull it off
successfully it needs a deft touch and impeccable timing. Get that wrong and daft can degenerate into just
plain silly and the cast of four(ish)* rose to the challenge, up all 39
steps one might say, in some considerable style. James Weetman is a suave, stiff, to the point of
solid, upper-lipped English chap who is always there to do the right
thing and save the nation. Hannay, Richard Hannay is the name,
gentleman adventurer, bored with life and even his club. Assisting, or otherwise, are our attractive
heroines, a sort of buy one get two free offer with Samanatha Holden
managing to remember which wig and frock she was supposed to be wearing
with no problem as she appears as first a foreign agent, the voluptuous,
seductive and soon to be the late Annabella Schmidt, then flirty
Margaret the wellie wearing Crofter's wife and finally the reluctant,
upper class Pamela who finally believes Hannay's tale of being framed
for murder and his attempts to thwart the mysterious foreign power
stealing British secrets. Flying around them like a pair of Jack Russells
just let loose in the park are Steve Parsons and Chris Butler who play
the other 131 parts superbly covering everything from police and paper
sellers, ladies underwear salesmen, the mysterious Professor Jordan, and
his wife, spies, the Mr Memory variety act, a Scottish landlady and her
husband along with assorted hillocks, tussocks and a stream.
There are some wonderful comic scenes in the play
such as when Pamela, who has ended up handcuffed to Hannay, who she
believes to be a murderer, slowly takes off her stockings in the
Scottish boarding house with Hannay – eyes almost crossed attempting to
avert his gaze – finds his hand following hers up and down her legs. Steve Parson in a frock is another memorable
sight as he gives us a bottom wiggling Mrs Jordan or unintelligible
Scottish landlady while Chris Butler is a chameleon of a Professor
Jordan changing from friendly Scottish Laird to sneering foreign
(possibly Jerry) infiltrator with a gun. Both, listed in the cast as merely Man, have a
mammoth task and must be exhausted by the end with so many changes,
parts and accents to contend with. Accents, by the way, are a big feature. They are
all a little cartoony – ve haf vays of meeking yo tock and all
that but that is the point. The whole play is not about realism, it is
an affectionate send up of the 1935 film and other Hitchcock classics
and the cast managed not only credible accents but kept them consistent. Part of the cleverness of the script comes from
the set – or rather lack of it. Windows are merely frames, rooms are represented
by a door and frame on wheels, the Forth Bridge by a collection of
ladders while cars and trains are created from what is there. Special effects (in the loosest sense of the
word) abound and even include what is reliably reputed to be the only
theatrical mid-air bi-plane crash ever staged. This was the formula laid down by the original
West Yorkshire Playhouse production in 2005 and continues to this day
with the long running West End production at the wonderful Criterion
Theatre in Piccadilly. Director Edward James Stokes, who also designed
the set, has kept faithfully to the original and, to his credit and that
of his cast and crew, the scene changes, apart from the dramatic setting
up of the mid-air bi-plane crash, which is entirely understandable, are
fast enough not to lose momentum.
It is a small point but give the audience time to
blink and think between scene changes and the pace, which is the engine
for much of the fun, is lost and HGLT largely avoided that little
pitfall. Apart from the cast there ought to be a special
mention for Linda Neal and Tony O'Hagan, the lighting operators. No
slide ‘em up at the start, down again at the end here. With standard lamps going on and off, fires,
chases, trains, stations and even the London Palladium to cope with this
is a script littered with lighting cues and they didn't appear to miss a
one. The same applies to Derek Jones, Dean Taylor and
Simon Nall on sound who provide almost an extra character with trains,
car chases, radio announcements, telephones and all manner of effects
from sheep to romance all provided on cue. This is an excellent production which is slick,
fast, furious and more important, gloriously funny. Fail to laugh at
this and perhaps someone should call an undertaker. To 24-03-12. Roger Clarke *Just one tiny observation . . . the play claims
a cast of just four but in the dramatic, terror filled(ish) ending with
all four actors facing death, or worse, and all together on stage . . .
where does the hand with a gun come from? Answer that with just your four people!
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