OBSERVER: The 39 Steps
The timing is immaculate, the immersion immediate and the story almost immaterial which all speaks to the physically chaotic fun of Patrick Barlow’s adaption of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps.
Richard Hannnay (Ian Stenlake) must foil a spy ring. Lisa McCune plays the femme fatale, the dour Scotsman’s wife and Pamela, the love interest that Hannay meets along the way, and the Umbilical Brothers (David Collins, Shane Dundas), completely in their element, play every other role.
Damien Ryan’s direction teases and toys with all the conventions of sound and lighting (Matthew Marshall, Brady Watkins) and revels in the anarchic fun that is both an acknowledgement of dramatic propriety and a breaking of those strictures.
The lighting and sound go wrong all at the right time. This takes skill to achieve the comic effect.
James Brown’s set with its use of back projection plays into those same conventions. The tonal simplicity of the palette, and flats being both flown and slid across the stage allows for space to be curtained and contained. The simplicity of it all is where the dramatic creativity lies.
And the cast revel in the opportunity provided by the play’s playfulness. Collins and Dundas are masters of physical theatre. They seem to be able to switch roles effortlessly, instantly and convincingly. The exchange of hats is a tour de force of timing and coordination.
McCune and Stenlake know precisely how far they can take the melodrama, the comedy and how best to milk the routine. They seem to be completely comfortable with their accents and within the skin of the characters they inhabit.
Barlow’s adaption is really an acknowledgement of theatrical form and it licences actors to work the stage as well as styles of theatre.
It is also a coordination of all those theatrical elements which equally impact on the outcome. Sound, lighting, set and cast must all work in tandem. Nothing is static. And all this enlivens the audience.
Performance Season: Until October 4
Venue: Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
Bookings: Ticketek
Review by David McLean
Pictured: Lisa McCune and Ian Stenlake
Photo: Cameron Grant