Fans seeking farce, Alfred Hitchcock drama and spy adventures should not miss the Great Lakes Theater’s Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps currently playing at the Hanna Theatre. Directed by Jaclyn Miller, the play is packed with spirited fun and satiric frivolity. It is delightful from start to finish.
Attempts to describe the plot’s twists and turns seem irrelevant — and perhaps futile — as the story moves at warp speed. Half the fun is falling into our hero’s frenetic adventure and trying, along with the four actors who cover over a dozen characters, to figure out “What the heck is going on?”
Richard Hannay (Anthony Michael Martinez) skillfully portrays the confused hero whose mishaps drive the adventure. It all begins when strangers break into Hannay’s flat and murder Annabella, a woman he was trying to rescue. Martinez creates a Hannay whom we trust and instinctively like as we follow his efforts to extricate himself from a series of bad (Hitchcock-inspired) situations.
Betsy Mugavero, first as Annabella, then as Margaret, and finally as Pamela, plays three lovely, mysterious, and eccentric (hence, comic) women Hannay encounters. Maggie Kettering and Joe Wegner, both cast in male and female roles (some mustaches stay on better than others), dazzle with quick changes of character and costume.
At first glance, the bare set, designed by Courtney O’Neill, looks like Great Lakes forgot to create scenery. The stage boasts a cluttered jumble of objects strewn across a space that stretches to the back wall. Steel frames, stairs and frames seem random. But when the play begins (and as it continues), we see genius demonstrated as simple things (a trunk, a light, a chair, and more) shift into our focus and out as needed. The nimble actors fetch what they need, as they need it, with alacrity and (yes) humor.
Esther M. Haberlen’s costumes provide for reversible garments and quick changes that complement the action. Lighting designer Heather Gilbert, sound designer Matthew Webb, and stage managers Sarah Kelso and Imani Sade all contribute to this “never-a-dull-moment” show.
Patrick Barlow adapted the version seen at Great Lakes from the novel by John Buchan and from the movie by Alfred Hitchcock.
Bottom Line: The synchronized and hilarious impersonations created by the four-person cast justifies the appellation tour de force. It may have helped that our seats were in the front row —the perfect vantage point to see fake mustaches tremble, dodge hats flying off, and hear actors slide into nearby seats — but whatever the cause, Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps provided blissful theater escape.
[Written by Laura Kennelly]