The 39 Steps (stage work)

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The 39 Steps (German: "The 39 Steps") is a farce based on the 1915 crime novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The play was written by Patrick Barlow , who is based on a Original concept based by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon for two actors.

history

The basic idea of ​​the piece is to retell the entire plot of the film with only four actors and the most economical props on a simple stage. One actor plays the hero named Richard Hannay, one actress embodies the three women with whom romantic entanglements arise in the course of the plot, the other two actors play all the other characters (male and female), occasionally even inanimate objects. This necessitates rapid changes of mood (light, acoustic background), and occasionally the actors have to play several characters at the same time. In this way, the thrilling and completely serious espionage story of the film becomes a comedic plot in the style of Monty Python . The text is full of allusions and corruptions of other Hitchcock films from Window to the Courtyard to Psycho to The Invisible Third .

The play in the version for four actors premiered in June 2005 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse under the direction of Fiona Buffini, followed a year later by the first London production under the title "John Buchan's The 39 Steps" at the Tricycle Theater. The German-language premiere was on April 17th, 2008 in the Grenzlandtheater Aachen . Since then it has been given in countless productions in a wide variety of countries (including UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong, Mexico, Greece, Spain, Argentina, Philippines, South Korea)

Awards

The play won the Olivier Award (2007) and the What's On Stage Award as “Best Comedy” , and the production on Broadway (2008) received two Tony Awards (Best Light Design and Best Sound Design).

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