Casting announced for The 39 Steps tour

Casting has been announced for the forthcoming UK tour of award-winning comedy The 39 Steps.

Tom Byrne will play Richard Hannay, joined by Safeena Ladha as Annabella Schmidt / Pamela / Margaret, Eugene McCoy as Clown 1 and Maddie Rice as Clown 2 (the first time this production has cast a female identifying actor as one of the Clowns), with Jacob Daniels and Hannah Parker as the understudies.

Byrne’s screen credits include The Crown, Bridgerton, A Discovery of Witches and Black Mirror. On stage he’s been seen in A Christmas Carol and Twelfth Night for the RSC.

Ladha’s recent theatre work includes She at Tara Theatre and on tour, The Great Gatsby: The Immersive Show and Coriolanus (Rose Theatre Bankside). McCoy has appeared in American Psycho at the Almeida, Groundhog Day at the Old Vic and Legally Blonde at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Rice took over from Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the stage show of Fleabag, while other credits include All My Sons at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Henry V at the Noel Coward.

Presented by Fiery Angel in association with Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, The 39 Steps was originally written as a novel by John Buchan back in 1915, and was then adapted into a 1935 film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

This stage version is penned by Patrick Barlow from an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. It went on to win the 2007 Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best Comedy and picked up two Tony Awards the following year on Broadway.

Featuring four actors who take on 139 roles, the play follows Richard Hannay on a crime caper filled with murder, double-crossing secret agents and romance.

The production is headed by UK tour director Nicola Samer, with the original creative team of designer Peter McKintosh, lighting designer Ian Scott, sound designer Mic Pool and director of movement Toby Sedgwick.  Casting is by Abby Galvin, while the tour is a remount of the award-winning production directed by Maria Aitken and by Patrick Barlow.

The 39 Steps launches the new tour at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch on 14 March 2024, before visiting Richmond, Newcastle, Cardiff, Sheffield, Cambridge, Malvern, Cheltenham, Glasgow, Birmingham, Oxford, Norwich, Guildford, Brighton and Southend.