Theatre News

The 39 Steps returns to region, April

Following its huge success at the Liverpool Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock’s classic spy thriller The 39 Steps, arrives at the Manchester Opera House in April.

Adapted by Patrick Barlow from an original script by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, The 39 Steps is being directed by Maria Aitken, as she did in the West End.

The production gained an Olivier award for Best New Comedy for its witty adaptation. It follows the incredible adventures of handsome hero Richard Hannay, complete with stiff-upper-lip, British gung-ho and pencil moustache, as he encounters dastardly murders, double-crossing secret agents, and, of course, devastatingly beautiful women.

Aitken’s production contains every single legendary scene from the award-winning 1935 classic Hitchcock movie thriller, including the chase on the Flying Scotsman, the escape on the Forth Bridge, the first theatrical bi-plane crash ever staged and the sensational death-defying finale in the London Palladium.

This gripping comedy thriller features four actors, playing 139 roles in 100 minutes of fast-paced fun and thrilling action.

The cast for this production are Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, as Hannay, and Katherine Kingsley as his glamorous but reluctant accomplice Pamela. Dan Starkey and Richard Braine are the men charged with the task of portraying the majority of the 139 roles in this fast-paced caper.

This production of The 39 Steps, like the Hitchcock film, is based on the book written by John Buchan.

The 39 Steps is a Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse production by arrangement with Edward Snape for Fiery Angel and Tricycle Theatre London Productions in association with West Yorkshire Playhouse.

The 39 Steps opens at the Opera House on Monday 12 April and runs until Saturday 17 April 2010.


To read the Whatsonstage.com review of the production from Liverpool, please click here

*Photograph taken by Tristram Kenton