“The 39 Steps” Review
By: Ted Langat
“The 39 Steps”, the thriller play that everyone had been anticipating for some time now was set for the 15th through the 18th of February, 2017.
The play started at 7:30 pm, and the narration was done by the main character, Richard Hannay, who kicked off the play. As it continued, it showed a play within a play; whereby the character Hannay, went into a theater to watch a performance. The scene was acted well bringing about humor as well as the introduction of a female character by the name Anabela Schmidt.
From this point of the play, a mysterious vibe was brought about having some suspense when Lady Schmidt was explaining “a secret organization of spies,” while, at the same time, being waited on by some men. Again, more humor is shown by the use of sounds in the play to indicate terror. However, in spite the play showing more of thriller, comedy was evident in the entire play since all the characters had a part in creating humor. Later on, Lady Schmidt was assassinated and the blame was put on Mr. Hannay. Therefore, in terror, he flees to seek refuge and find whosoever was in ‘Scotland’.
The following scene was in, what seemed, to be in a train. This is because there were train sounds accompanied by the motion shown by the actors. In this scene, it is seen that Richard Hannay was on the way to Scotland when he learned that he was being pursued by the police, when he saw his face on the newspaper. Unluckily, Richard Hannay got to meet with the hands of the law, but he tried to evade by faking a relationship with a new character in the play by the name Pamela. Later, Richard jumped off the train and hanged by a bridge, but then fell.
Richards luck came to be when he finally got to Scotland and here, two more characters were introduced, a man and his newly wedded wife Margaret. Once the police had found his whereabouts, Richards luck soon ran out. Running away from the police, sound effects were used for a plane and more humor was evident when it crashed. Finally having reached his destination he got to meet the person who seemed to be the antagonist of the play; Professor Jordan, who later killed him leaving the audience in suspense.
A 15 minute break was given for the audience to stretch and grab something for the next half of the play. Exactly 15 minutes later, the play continued, in shock, Richard Hannay seemed to have survived. He had survived by the aid of a hymn book in his pocket. He was later betrayed by the head of police who admitted to having a friendship with the professor. Running off, Richard found himself in a political meeting, which put him in the spotlight and Pamela spotted him, who alerted the police again. To utter surprise, the people who arrested him were henchmen of the professor who wanted to kill him. Thanks to a sheep that did not move from the middle of the road, Richard was able to escape with Pamela.
Richard later found refuge in a rest house and spent the night there. Thanks to Pamela’s information, Richard was able to figure out the plan of the professor and was on the act to stop him. In this scene, the audience was taken back to the play in a play. In the attempt of arresting Richard in the theater, he discovered that the Professor wanted to abduct the host of the play in the theater because he had valuable knowledge. By this, Richard was able to fight off the Professor and he got to clear his name with the police of the charge of murder. In conclusion, a narration was done by Richard, hence marking an end to the thriller, yet comic play.