The 39 Steps

If you want to know the most creative part of London you must walk across the West End. This terminology includes mythical places like Charing Cross, Covent Garden, Soho, Leicester Square, Regent Street, the Seven Dials or Holborn. But West End is not only streets and monuments. It’s pure theatre. 

The Criterion Theatre dominates Picadilly Circus for 137 years. Today it is possible to buy, at a really good price, a ticket to enjoy The 39 Steps, a play performed in this auditorium since the 20th of September of 2006. 

Alfred Hitchcock used the John Buchan’s adventures novel to create, in 1935, one of the best Britain movies ever. Years later, the English playwright Patrick Barlow collected from these two classics, added English humour, in the Monty Python style, and wrote a story to be represented by four actors only. 

The play starts with a monologue of our hero, Richard Hannay, performed by Adam Jackson-Smith. The laughs were guaranteed. A new friend, a murder and the plot was served. The main character suffered chases and he must escape away from spies, cops, killers and beautiful women. 

Jennifer Bryden performances the main three female characters. Annabelle Schmidt, the super-spy with German accent; Pamela, the beautiful blonde woman; and Margaret, the Scottish farmer. 

Andy Williams and Stephen Critchlow hold the responsibility in the play. 100 minutes, 135 characters. Spies, farmers, cops, business men, women, hotels owners, mentalists… These artists can do all the personages that you can imagine, obviously in a comical way. They wear hats, clothes and wigs that allow them to change the character with a hilarious velocity. In a concrete moment in the function, they aren’t going to get their accoutrements changed behind the curtain but in front of all the spectators, in the stage. This situation will add, even more, mirth and fun. 

A special refer deserves the Chinese shadows, the toy trains, the waterfall and all the gadgets that the Director, Maria Aitken, uses to achieve theatre inside the theatre. And, evidently, mentions to the master Hitchcock. Vertigo and Psycho appear in the stage to add another touch of humour. 

This adaptation, this new form to do theatre, works. The play has won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2007, the Drama Desk Awards for Unique Theatrical Experience and Outstanding Lighting Design the year later, and is the winner of two Tony Awards. 

This theatrical clownishness is to die for. So, do not miss it!