Somewhere out there, surely, is a person who walked into "The 39 Steps" expecting a straightforward adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's 1939 film. God help them. It's true that the plot is the same, but the film is a thriller while the play is like a thriller performed by Bugs Bunny and friends after a weeklong bender. If that sounds like your idea of a good time (for what it's worth, it's mine), the play was onstage at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre.
Ian Grell plays Richard Hannay, a tall and handsome Englishman. He attends a live show, during which a man calling himself Mr. Memory (Maddie Jones) demonstrates how he earned the nickname (look, this was before Netflix. in those days, you took any entertainment you could get). Joining Mr. Memory onstage is his assistant, played by TJ Clark. Hannay finds himself speaking with Annabella Smith (Mae Fletcher), a fetching stranger who knows how to make an impression which, in this case, involves firing a gun into the air.
Hannay takes her back to his flat (well, wouldn't you?). There, she tells him her life is in danger and she fired the gun to cause a distraction, allowing her to escape her pursuers. She claims to have discovered a plot to steal British military secrets. She alludes to a man with a partially severed finger and to something called "The 39 Steps." She takes his bed for the night. He takes the chair, which sounds like the worse deal until the next morning comes and you learn she was stabbed during the night. Literature largely agrees that sleeping in a chair is preferable to being murdered.
Whatever benefits one accrues by waking up to a dead body in one's flat, among them is surely a certain renewal of energy, it has its downsides, too. Not least among them is the fact that the police might suspect you of murder. Hannay skips town, determined to get to the bottom of the whole "39 Steps" business. What follows can be enjoyed on two levels—the unraveling of a mystery and the sheer, manic joy of a comedy determined to entertain you by any means necessary.
The cast is supplemented by a few others, but it's mainly the four we've discussed: Grell, who plays one character, Fletcher, who plays three, and Jones and Clark who, between them, add something like another 140. The pair are constantly donning and doffing hats, putting on and removing jackets and slipping into and out of different accents, ages, postures and selves. Between the two of them, they have enough energy to power a medium-sized star. Of course, energy's one thing. Talent is another. Thankfully, they have that, too. Whether it's Clark bent forward by extreme age or Jones smiling as a... well, I won't spoil it. Just know that they cannot be resisted.
Grell and Fletcher, who have fewer but weightier roles, shouldn't be overlooked, though. Grell resurrects a certain unflappable British spirit from bygone generations with seeming effortlessness, never letting us in on how hard he's working. And Fletcher, especially as Hannay's love interest, has quiet strength and charm. Without the two of them, the play would veer off into pure absurdity. It needs them at the center.
What is it about old British mysteries that makes them so ripe for parody? "The 39 Steps" joins "Clue" and "The Play That Goes Wrong" in sending up the genre. All three succeed because of their evident affection for what's come before. A warped tribute is still a tribute, something made evident by every minute of Civic's production.
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