The 39 Steps is adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan, and from the movie by Alfred Hitchcock.
Directed by Mark Wickett
A whisky, two stubborn singletons bound by handcuffs, and a chase from London to the Scottish Highlands, The 39 Steps takes a Hitchcock masterpiece based on the ground-breaking spy novel by John Buchan and transforms it into a theatrical spectacle of comedy, action, romance, and fresh fish.
“On the surface, it’s a classic thriller set in the mid-1930s, when the world was again frightened of war – terrified of whatever The 39 Steps could be,” says director Mark Wickett, “yet when you look beneath that menace, the two main characters are just lonely individuals caught up in something much bigger than themselves, trying to deny their mutual attraction.”
Adapted by Patrick Barlow for the West End and Broadway, this Olivier and two-timeTony award winning play has dozens of characters – all played by a ridiculously talented cast of four – with sound effects created live by an on-stage foley artist. The play is a pastiche of Hitchcock’s 1935 film (and his other works), creating laugh-out-loud comedy from witty dialogue – often unchanged from Hitchcock’s writers – and inventive stagecraft, on a stripped-back set in the intimate surroundings of Adelaide’s Little Theatre.