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| Dan Fenaughty, Jonathan Brody, David Edwards and Larissa Klinger. Photo by Roger U. Williams |
The question is, is The 39 Steps, which recently opened at
the Ivoryton Playhouse, a play or an exercise designed by some acting school to
test the mettle of its students? This farce by Patrick Barlow, a take-off on
the novel by John Buchan and Alfred Hitchcock’s film, can appeal to audience
members on different levels: as pure farce, as a display of acting skills, or
merely as a “catch the allusion” game. Whether it satisfies as a play remains
to be seen.
As directed by Erik Bloomquist, this
story of the travails of Richard Hannay (Dan Fenaughty), caught up in a
somewhat convoluted plot to steal information from Great Britain’s Air Ministry
(the info Hitchcock’s “MacGuffin”), is played as broadly as possible, with a
lot of pregnant pauses to make sure the audience “gets” the jokes (a man
sitting behind me got them, and verbalized them before the actors delivered the
punch lines). If you buy Bloomquist’s direction, which seems to consist of a
“let it all hang out whenever possible” philosophy, then you will blithely sail
along on this somewhat troubled sea.
Over the course of the evening,
Fenaughty gets to play just one character, the somewhat supercilious Hannay,
and he does it quite well, coming across (intentionally) as a 1930s actor in a
B-Grade movie. The other cast members are called upon to create multiple
characters, often with but slight changes of costume. Larissa Klinger is first
seen as a German femme fatale who delights in glottal stops (think of someone
with a severe case of catarrh trying to clear her throat). Next she’s a perky
miss that Hannay comes across on a train to Scotland
Then there are the two “Clowns,”
played by Jonathan Brody and David Edwards, who create too many characters to
be completely listed. To say that they wear multiple hats is an understatement,
but there’s the aforementioned Scottish farmer, several policemen, railroad
porters, hotel owners (husband and wife), a villain and his wife, and the focus
of all this running around, Mr. Memory. It should be noted that Edwards gets to
deliver the funniest line of the evening: “I thought there was only four of
us.” You’ll understand if you see the play. If you are not geographically
inclined, you might also want to look up the definition of “crotch,” which
figures in a sight gag in the second act. If you’re not a Hitchcock aficionado,
you might also want to check his filmography and search YouTube for the
crop-dusting scene from North by
Northwest (yes, Hitch does make a cameo appearance in the play).
What you make of all of this depends
on your ability to suspend disbelief, your proclivity for re-runs of The Benny Hill Show, and your tolerance
for characters cast in the vauldevillian mode. It also wouldn’t hurt to imbibe
a glass or two of your favorite wine before attending, if only to prime the
giggle part of your medulla oblongata.
The
39 Steps runs through June 19. For tickets or more information call
860-767-7318 or go to www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.
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