By Whitney Sorensen
Eagle Mountain’s West Side Theatre Company uses its talented cast to draw out the cleverness in The 39 Steps and elicit many laughs from the audience. Even more intriguingly, no two performances will be the same, as the cast members will switch roles each night, a prospect that makes it tempting for me to attend again to see what different actors bring to each part.
You may know The 39 Steps as a novel or an Alfred Hitchcock film, but I would venture to say the most famous iteration of this story is the play. The play is a parody of Hitchcock films as a genre, so in The 39 Steps you’ll find many of the staples of a Hitchcock film: mistaken identity and mysterious ingenues, scenes on train cars and scenes with attacking planes. But the play uses the ways Hitchcock’s films have indelibly penetrated pop culture to elicit laughs from the audience rather than play the mystery story entirely straight and spooky. Because of that, this show provided the perfect wrap-up to my Halloween week.
Patrick Barlow’s adaptation for the stage also adds another convention that amps up the potential for laughter. Only four actors perform the many speaking roles in the show. One actor portrays Richard Hanney (Gary Kiester during my performance), the central figure; another actor his love interests, primarily Pamela (Hayley Warner); and two more literally everyone else in the story, including train conductors and passengers, performers in a London stage show, innkeepers, and police officers.
These clown roles went to Melanie Parry and Hannah Farr on the night I attended, and both actors made full use of the comedic gold inherent in the script and concept provided for them. They ad-libbed lines to react to the inevitable kinks of live performance and opening night. Using two additional, mostly silent cast members (Zel Bromley and Caleb Sorenson), they undergo many quick changes, switching accents just as quickly as they switch hats. In another scene, they assist each other directly in changing clothes, immediately then becoming the character who would or wouldn’t wear the coat they have just put on or taken off. Every time they left the stage, I was eager for them to return.
In this production, one last cast member fills out the stage during the performance: the foley artist responsible for the comedic, story-advancing sound effects throughout the show. I saw Emily Nash in this role. Director Jess Wallace Nielsen and co-director Charity Brooks wisely add this element to the production, not only because it provides further opportunities for comedy, but also because the foley artist helps the small performance space feel more accessible. Several times the foley even acts as a projection of the audience, visibly or verbally reacting to the action onstage the way the audience would. I found this more effective in some instances than others. For example, when the foley shook her fists in frustration that Hanney is giving too much information away, I was distracted away from the main action onstage; however, I loved the foley’s verbal reactions to the sound effect of a gun going off, which gave the foley an opportunity to interact with the other performers and adds another layer of humor by calling out basic theatrical conventions like sound effects.
The plot of The 39 Steps feels straightforward but almost secondary to the craziness carried out by the clowns. Some of the character motivations, particularly for Hanney, get lost in long speeches that lack the same depth of humor the clowns’ energy brings to the stage. For this reason, the play does have a few scenes that drag a little bit. I also didn’t find myself entirely rooting for the romantic storyline. I credit this feeling to the fact that the script switches the ingenue three times in the first act before settling on Pamela as a love interest in the second.
Final elements I enjoyed in The 39 Steps include the versatile set pieces designed by Farr. They use several old-fashioned trunks to create train seats, an automobile, and a bed. They also hid humor in some of the background sets brought in by the dressers (watch for a shout-out to Middle Earth during the train sequence). Costumes by Nielsen are also simple yet effective, totally devoted to declaring character quickly. This is a minor quibble, but from the audience, Warner’s makeup was too pale, and she needed a little color in her cheeks to look less ghostly. (I include this because we try, in our efforts to be positive and supportive, to mention things that can easily be fixed.) Kudos also to dialect coach Aubrey Warner for helping the cast capture the essence of English, Scottish, and German voices.
If you attend (and you should!), the venue is easy to find, even for someone unfamiliar with Eagle Mountain. Arrive early so you can have your pick of the general admission seating, but be sure to stretch your legs before the show and during intermission since the seats are comfortable-ish folding chairs.
The 39 Steps feels familiar for a Hitchcock fan like me or, I would guess, any fan of film, considering how many mystery and thriller conventions were made famous by him. But it also feels entirely fresh, thanks to this more-than-one-laugh-a-minute script, the excellent staging and performances from West Side Theatre Company, and a story that keeps you guessing.
West Side Theatre Company presents The 39 Steps, adapted by Patrick Barlow
Garden Near the Green, 3700 E Campus Drive #100, Eagle Mountain, UT 84005
November 2-5, 2018 7:30 PM, Saturday matinee November 3 2:30 PM, Dark Sunday
Tickets: $10-12
Contact West Side Theatre Company
West Side Theatre Company on Facebook
WSTC The 39 Steps Facebook event
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