Vienna Theatre Company’s “The 39 Steps” combines espionage intrigue with madcap farce.
Even without some of the familiar Alfred Hitchcock theme music cropping up now and again, its easy to catch the suspenseful undertones present in the famed director’s serious 1935 cinematic take on the subject.
The play, adapted by Patrick Barlow and directed by Katherine and Nicholas Boone, revolves around the adventures of an Englishman, Richard Hannay, who gets caught up in an espionage plot in England and Scotland in the 1930s.
Joe Gallagher is engaging as the protagonist, who squirms out comically from beneath a murder victim and tries to hide his face from anyone reading the next day’s newspaper, featuring a large front-page photo of him as the prime suspect.
Gallagher also is spry while jumping (as gently as possible) from the 4-foot-tall stage and running through the seating area while being chased by bad guys.
Jessie Duggan, fresh off her comedic success as a ditzy, demanding actress in VTC’s “Shakespeare in Hollywood,” keeps the laughs going in a variety of roles. She first plays an ill-fated, whisky-gulping spy who confides about “The 39 Steps,” which pertain to a silent aircraft engine. Duggan pops up again as a Scottish farmer’s wife and a train occupant.
Ensemble players Haydn Dollery, Kevin Lukacs and Kim Paul – identified only as “clowns” in the playbill – do terrific work and probably could start a millinery store from all the different hats they have to wear in this production.
All three at times play law-enforcement officers. Dollery also takes turns as an announcer and milkman. Paul puts on a playful voice and mannerisms as the mustachioed “Mr. Memory,” who we learn later holds key plot information. Lukacs is a hoot as a pitchfork-wielding Scottish farmer and dangerous as the mysterious spy ringleader.
The show takes plentiful advantage of the audience’s suspension of disbelief by having picture frames serve as windows through which characters peep or escape.
Costume designer Michelle Harris supplies the performers with everything from formal suits and evening gowns to police uniforms and thugs’ black trenchcoats and hats.
Sound designer Adam Parker enhances the play’s atmosphere with a variety of noises, from train whistles to a police car pulling up on a gravel road. Rear projections also add to the mood (and surely keep scene-production costs in check). One especially enjoyable effect featured a picture of a train car’s windows with buildings moving past, enhanced by an actor who ran by holding various station signs.
Other playful touches abound. The playbill gives a nod to the maroon chair used in the death scene, which apparently also has appeared in at least four other VTC shows. The recorded pre-show remarks also feature several performers doing foreign accents.
The play’s second act gets off to a slow start, but picks up toward the end. The show has plenty of enjoyable lines and suspense as the protagonist clamors to learn the truth and clear his name.
“The 39 Steps” runs through May 5 at the Vienna Community Center. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $16. For more information, go to viennatheatrecompany.org/tickets.html.
