Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps. It is a parody adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept and production of the story was by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. Patrick Barlow rewrote this adaptation in 2005.
This award winning play is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 characters (played by a relatively small cast), an on-stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance. In The 39 Steps, a man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick accent who says she’s a spy. When he takes her home she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organization called “The 39 Steps” is hot on the man’s trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale! The play is full of allusions to Alfred Hitchcock films, including Stranger on a Train, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest.