Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps at Asheville Community Theatre
Alfred Hitchcock and comedy might not always go in the same sentence, but after Asheville Community Theatre’s production of The 39 Steps, maybe they should.
If you’re familiar with the 1935 film noir or the 1915 novel of the same name (which, honestly, is impressive if that’s your preferred source material), the basic premise remains the same. Only in this stage adaptation by Patrick Barlow, the cast of nearly 16 characters is performed by only four actors who take on over 150 roles, two of whom take on the bunt of the role-swapping.
Canadian Richard Hannay (Travis Lowe, who holds steady as this single character) returns to his London apartment, bored. He opts to go see Mister Memory (one of Mash Hess’ many subroles as “Clown One”) demonstrate his powers of recall when Annabella Schmidt (Hannah Keith, who goes on to play two other parts) pulls the trigger on her pistol into the air. After returning to Hannay’s apartment, Annabella reveals she’s a spy trying to stop a war, there’s a criminal mastermind with part of his little finger missing, and she must get to the Scottish town of Alt-Na-Shellach — pronounced with as comically guttural of an ending as Keith and Lowe can muster, the first in many Mel Brooks-esque gags in the play.
After spotting two heavies (Hess and Mikhale Sherrill as “Clown Two”) hauling their own streetlamp to menacingly stand under outside, Hannay allows Annabella to stay the night, which is his first mistake. She awakens him later with a knife in her back, dying in his living room before handing him a map of Scotland. Thanks to the rotating platforms designed by Jill Summers, Hannay is whisked away by train to the north. I’ll spare you the rest, as the story follows the film quite closely, but the rest of the play is where the comedy comes in so strongly.
What I absolutely love about this production is how tight everything is, especially considering how much chaos is occurring on stage by the multiple-identity-disorder cast. Each performance is top notch, down to nameless train passengers who transition to being newsboys and bobbies, thanks to phenomenal work from Hess and Sherrill, as well as wardrobe supervision from Fable Wilde Day, who kept coats and hats on hand for the two actors running on and off stage.
The production crew is also heavily involved, as Summers, assistant stage manager Joe Kane, and run crew members Scott Cameron and Joby Lavery all play integral parts in the production beyond typical tech duties (which I don’t want to spoil as their additions are hilarious). Under direction of Jeff Catanese, a play that originated with two trunks as props and setting pieces in its 1995 debut run fits incredibly well on ACT’s 40-foot stage.
Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps runs through Sunday, July 7, at Asheville Community Theatre. There will be a live Spanish translation during the Sunday, June 30, production; descriptive audio on the Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29; and ASL interpretation during the Sunday, July 7, show. For details and tickets, visit ashevilletheatre.org.
(Photo by Eli Cunningham)
