Patrick Barlow Riffs on 1935 Hitchcock Film in Exciting Noir Comedy

by Lynne Stevens

The props become part of the action in “The 39 Steps.” Characters leap through handheld windows. Doors swivel and beds flip down. Stagehands in black slip in with lamp posts and balconies. Silhouettes on back lit screens show comic turns in this nutty spy caper. There’s a distant chase and zany close-ups of writhing and dancing.

Steamer trunks in a line become seats on a train, as clever actors jiggle along. “The 39 Steps” was exactly what I needed to get me out of the dumps.

Richard Hannay (sympathetic Phil Wong), a Brit back from duty in foreign lands, is bored: “Come on Hannay! Pull yourself together man! Find something to do, you bloody fool! . . . Something utterly pointless. Something – (He has a brainwave.) – I know! A West End show! That should do the trick!”  And the audience at San Francisco Playhouse howls.

Four multi-talented actors play more than 100 English and Scottish roles as easily as putting on new hats. Greg Ayers and Renee Rogoff, cast as “Clowns,” play newsies, salesmen, police, spies, hotel keepers, and music hall performers. Zany Ayers plays Mr. Memory patterned after a real, pre-WWII vaudeville performer called “Datas, The Human Encyclopedia.” “Everyday Mr. Memory commits to memory fifty new facts and remembers every one of them!” These typically English oddities lead us to expect the unexpected.

It all starts with a gunshot in a crowded theater where Hannay has gone to relax. After the commotion, mystery woman Annabella Schmidt, played with feigned innocence by Maggie Mason, pleads with Hannay to take her home with him. She’s sure she’s being followed, and all because of an international spy ring, called “The 39 Steps.”

Peeking out Hannay’s apartment windows, we see spies lurking under the lamp post. Somehow, unbeknownst to Hannay, someone has entered the apartment and stabbed Annabella. As Annabella, Mason’s antics as a corpse with a knife in her back are hilarious.

Before we know it, Hannay is accused of murder. He takes Annabella’s fears seriously and we’re off. Across the top of a speeding train, through open fields, into the highlands of Scotland.

Wong’s Hannay could be Everyman on the street. He isn’t particularly brave, but he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, he’s determined to do the right thing in this bewildering 30s world. Hannay is quite winning. The women are attracted to him, as signaled by the spotlights and musical cues. Deadpan Wong is constantly on the move in every scene. It’s a fun, fast-paced delight. Kudos to Director Susi Damilano.

More hilarity ensues when Hannay, handcuffed to Pamela (pert Mason again), lands at a Scottish inn. Rain-soaked Pamela stealthily removes her wet stockings attempting not to wake Hannay. The tense scene is uproariously funny. Vaudeville at its best.

Each new scene is more ridiculous than the next with Music Hall style and Keystone Cops antics. If laughter is the best medicine, “The 39 Steps” is a miracle cure.

“The 39 Steps” –adapted by Patrick Barlow, from the novel by John Buchan (1915) & the movie by Alfred Hitchcock (1935), directed by Susi Damilano, scenic design by Heather Kenyon, costumes by Alice Ruiz, lighting by Derek Duarte, sound by Dan Alvaro Holland, properties by Blue Hephaestus, at San Francisco Playhouse. Info: sfplayhouse.org – to April 20, 2024.

Cast: Greg Ayers, Maggie Mason, Renee Rogoff, and Phil Wong.

Banner photo: Maggie Mason, Phil Wong, Greg Ayers, & Renee Rogoff. Photos: Jessica Palopoli