Season Select: The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps

By Patrick Barlow

Directed by John Taylor Phillips

From the Novel by John Buchan
From the movie by Alfred Hitchcock
Licensed by ITV Global Entertainment Limited
And an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon
By arrangement with Fiery Angel Limited

Fast Facts

Playing: Touchstone Theatre | October 22 - November 30
Featuring: Nate Burger, Casey Hoekstra, Laura Rook & Marcus Truschinski
Genre: Hitchcock Comedy
Last Seen at APT: First time!
Go If You Liked: The Liar (2023), Stones in his Pockets (2022), The Taming of the Shrew (2021)

About The 39 Steps

Grab your gummy bears and buckle up for a fall-down funny thriller, as a charming everyman is swept up in romance and ridiculous twists. Launched into an intrigue he didn’t know he needed, our Mr. Hannay navigates femmes fatales, villains and clowns with dashing, theatrical flair. It’s a seductive spy story based on all the best noir, with a hearty comic twist – think North by Northwest by Noël Coward. All brought to gleeful life by four incredible actors playing over 100 characters. It’s the thrilling escape we’ve all been craving – a special event in the Touchstone that will leave you in stitches. Secure your tickets before they’re stolen away.

Chances are when you think of British espionage franchises, one name (or three numbers) comes to mind. Bond. James, Bond. 100 years ago, however, there was a different, daring hero saving the world from danger one mission at a time: Hannay. Richard Hannay.

The world was first introduced to the character of Richard Hannay over a series of serialized stories in 1915. Author John Buchan - who would later earn the distinction of becoming The Right Honourable Lord Tweedsmuir (and Governor General of Canada from 1935 – 1940) – was a prolific writer throughout his life, penning a series of spy-thriller and adventure novels to international acclaim during the First and Second World Wars. While recuperating from an illness on the shores of North Foreland, Buchan was inspired to write his first ‘shocker,’ The Thirty-Nine Steps. Set prior to the onset of World War 1, it tells the story of civilian Richard Hannay who is thrust into a whirlwind adventure once he stumbles across an international conspiracy to assassinate a global leader.

The thrilling twists and turns of Buchan’s novel earned it wide-spread praise and popularity, launching a new genre of “man-on-the-run” fiction for a public hungry for escapist fiction. Buchan continued protagonist Hannay’s adventures in sequels Greenmantle (1916), Mr. Standfast (1919), The Three Hostages (1924) and The Island of Sheep (1936) before passing at age 64 in 1940.

Five years prior, a young Alfred Hitchcock adapted Buchan’s breakaway novel into the now iconic black and white film. While there are distinct differences in major plot points between the original work and Hitchcock’s film, Buchan as well as British and American moviegoers found the movie captivating. The 39 Steps film would become known as an early example of a quintessential Hitchcock film and marked a stylistic and commercial turning point in the movie legend’s career.

Richard Hanney’s adventures continued in various mediums throughout the 20^th century, mainly radio dramas and the occasional film or TV spin off. While Agent 007’s star ascended following the release Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953), followed by the first film of the franchise, Dr. No (1962), Hannay’s heyday of infiltration came to a halt.

But, like any good thriller protagonist, he wasn’t dead yet. In 1995, creators Nobby Dimon and Simon Corble adapted The 39 Steps once again, this time, into a madcap stage production featuring a nimble, hilarious cast of four to bring the cross-country adventure to life. Soon, the theatrical adaptation began to gain steam and attention, before eventually being awarded the Olivier for Best New Comedy in 2007.

Simon Corble, a co-writer on the original production, shared this about the resulting longevity of The 39 Steps: “Part of the show's success is this spirit of evolution, of creative invention coming from the whole team - it is how it began.”

This “spirit of evolution” has helped carry the torch from the World War 1 dime novel to the story we still laugh along with today. And one final twist: in 1999, the British Film Institute published a list of the 100 best British films of the 20^th century. The highest ranked Bond film on the list, Dr. No, was ranked #41 on the list. The 39 Steps (1935) was ranked #4.