TSMS_39_Steops

Theresa Stratmann //The 39 Steps// Critique The University Theatre at the University of Georgia opened its season with a production of //The 39 Steps//. Adapted from the 1935 spy thriller film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock, I was expecting a fast-paced adventure with a bit of comedy thrown in. To my surprise, the play was a farce based on Hitchcock’s film. With a cast of only four actors and two stagehands for a play with about 35 characters the production crew had many challenges to overcome, but with the astonishing flexibility of the actors and deft skill in set design, costuming, and music they managed to produce a quick-paced, capturing, outrageously humorous play.

One of the most challenging aspects of producing this play is that the script is written for four actors who must fill the roles of over 30 characters. A challenge, this is also the basis of much of the humor in the play. The actor playing the protagonist, Richard Hannay, is the only one who keeps the same role throughout the play, yet his character must assume multiple disguises. One female actress plays the three romantic interests of Hannay, and two male actors, simply called the clowns in the credits, are left to play all other characters. Watching the two clowns fill all the other roles had the audience in constant laughter. The actors playing the clowns did an amazing job switching between accents, genders, and every imaginable age. I was especially impressed by how easily they switched between the various accents of the United Kingdom. It really helped establish the different nationalities and the setting as London or Scotland. It was also amazing and greatly amusing to see how at one point one of the clowns played two roles simultaneously, being both a passenger on a train and a newsboy selling the daily paper at the train station. Timing was of the utmost importance for these roles and they pulled it off deftly. Compared to the clowns, Hannay’s character was quite static – always serious and formal. He had to pretend as if it was quite normal for his fellow passenger to also be the newsboy, and believe that the three pillows on a rope in front of the police car are indeed sheep. The audience can laugh at how outrageous the clown is as the professor’s wife, but Hannay cannot see that, he must act as if everything is normal. He must believe in the ‘reality’ and normality of the settings and characters, because his seriousness in the midst of all these outrageous characters is what heightens the humor. I would imagine this to be very difficult, but Edward McCreary, who played Hannay, did a great job playing this rather serious role amidst so much hilarity. The actress playing Hannay’s three romantic interests had to act similarly when she played Margret and Pamela, but she also got to play a more comic role as Annabella Schmidt. Tressa Preston, who played these roles, did a good job switching between the overly dramatic Annabella Schmidt and Pamela, who had to be portrayed much more realistically, as the only other sane character besides Hannay. The audience’s constant laughter was a testament to the actors’ ability to successfully rise to the challenge of this play.

There were two additional unique, roles in this play. Cast as usher and usherette, these two actors filled minor roles and were responsible for moving the sets and props. With the stage set up as a theatre, making the stagehands ushers kept that feel of the theatre throughout the play. This was a clever solution to the problems posed by the numerous scene changes and the proximity of the audience to the stage. Multiple blackouts or having to draw a curtain would have broken the action and fast-paced nature of the play. By creating these two roles, the director kept us in that theatre feel that they chose for the setting while meeting the need for rapid and constant scene changes. This even allowed the action to continue through the scene changes at times, adding to the play’s humor. For example, when Pamela cries after a fight and parting with Hannay she clings to the bed. Yet the scene has to change and so the ushers begin taking apart the bed – a set of boxes – but she clings to the boxes. So the ushers have to fight to make her let go and it is quite amusing. In this manner, through the ushers, the director turns a difficulty into another source of comedy.

Numerous scene changes meant numerous sets were required as Hannay travels from London to Scotland. The scenic designer chose to make the base set an abandoned theatre, indicated by a theatre box on each side of the stage. This was both a tribute to the film noir characteristics of the original 1935 movie and an acknowledgement of theatrical nature of this farce. The characters are meant to be theatrical; there is no attempt to hide the fact that two actors play many different roles - that is the nature of much of the humor. Also, the play begins in a theatre; so designing the sets around the concept of a theatre is very fitting. The rest of the set pieces are meant to be left over scenery pieces from previous productions. Since the characters are already larger than life and there are so many scene changes, these sets and props were kept simple, with many sets pieces cleverly serving multiple roles. Boxes became beds, tables, and a train. Chairs were living room seating at one moment and a car at the next. One door on wheels became all doors and elevators in a house with the actors or ushers moving it as needed. There were just enough set pieces and props to convey the essence and essentials of the settings. The pieces did not draw focus from the actors and often facilitated the humor. My favorite prop was the use of three pillows on a rope carried by the ushers to represent a herd of sheep. I loved the creative use of only a handful of props and how they contributed to the humor of the play.

The use of the Cellar Theatre was also a good choice for this particular play. The Cellar Theatre is a very small and intimate setting. The audience is in very close proximity to the actors, which adds to the overly dramatic nature of the characters. In this theatre there is no need to act large in order to reach out to an audience in the back row because the back row is only a few feet from the stage. Hence the over dramatic acting is just that much funnier. This particular theatre also facilitates the incorporation of the audience. Since the stage is flush with the first row of seats a chase scene was made through the audience and one of the old men at the election rally nearly fell into the lap of one of the audience members. This breaks the fourth wall, but the fourth wall is constantly broken in this play because realism is not an aim. It all ties back to the original idea of the setting being a theatre. An audience is a vital part of a theatre, and so breaking the fourth wall is not an issue and adds to the humor.

The aspect of the play for which realism was of importance was the costuming. The costume designer chose to use pieces from British fashion in 1930s as tribute to the 1935 film. The costumes took us back to a time when men and women of the upper class were well poised in elegant attire. Although realistic, the costume pieces could not get in the way of the numerous quick changes that had to be made in order for the four actors to assume about 35 characters. With a simple change of a hat clown one went from a train passenger to a newsboy. Dawning the milkman’s coat, and Hannay has a disguise to flee from the police. I was impressed by how elaborate the costumes were despite the need to facilitate quick changes. Annabella Schmidt, Margret, and Pamela each had very nice costumes and the clowns constantly had on completely different outfits. Choosing to create very complete and real looking costumes really helped the audience believe each new role the actors assumed.

The sound also was instrumental to establishing the setting and era of the play, even adding humor at times. There was often use of very dramatic or romantic music, paying homage to the drama and romance of those old noir films. At other times the music mocked that same genre. The romantic music gets so loud during one romantic scene that the actors cannot hear each other and their moment of romance is shattered, another great comic moment in the play. Other times the music helps create the setting that the scenic pieces cannot. When Hannay is at the Professor’s house, there is a party going on. With 3 of the 4 actors already involved in the scene there are no more actors to create a party. Instead, when the professor’s wife opens the door to the party we hear party music, which immediately switches off when she closes the door. Setting the scene, it also gives the audience a good laugh. In this manner the sound had both purpose and humor.

Every aspect of this play – from the acting to the set design to the costumes and sound – had to facilitate the humor of the play while working around the challenge of having only four actors and one stage to create 35 characters that traverse the whole United Kingdom. The production team successfully rose to this challenge. The actors were very versatile, believing fully in the outrageous world they were creating. The use of a theatre for the set worked well and allowed for the incorporation of the audience. The ushers established that theatre feel throughout the play and as stagehands they helped the scene pieces become another humorous element of the play. The costumes really grounded the characters and atmosphere of the play while the sound added any missing element of setting, atmosphere, or humor. Together these elements created a show that kept the audience laughing. I love creative use of theatre space, scenery, and actors, and with so little to work with they nonetheless fully used what they had to create a thoroughly engaging world.