Review of the 39 Steps By the Fulton Theatre

Did I just see 39 Steps by Alfred Hitchcock or did I just see 39 steps to De-stress your Life at the Fulton Theater a few days ago?

The slapstick version of the classic murder mystery the 39 Steps follows the original story line and is chocked full of the 1930’s flavor of style and entertainment. But there is no need to get intellectually involved like other Hitchcock films. This is pure entertainment and perfect after a stressful work week.

 I was constantly bombarded by the hints of yester year’s style of entertainment…..The Keystone Kops, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, and Alfred Hitchcock in every fast moving scene. Watching the main character, Richard Hannay, being chased through the Scottish and British country side by the police is like watching Charlie Chaplin from years ago—even though an element was missing you understood the perils of the situation but thoroughly amused by the non-stop antics. Instead of missing sound (Charlie Chaplin movies) you are missing a lot of scenery and props in the case of the Fulton’s version of the 39 Steps. In this case the stark stage with ultra minimal props is like a little kid having the time of his life with a simple large box in which to play. It is much more entertaining to see the actors pretending to be jostled by a fast moving train or car rather than tons of Hollywood effects visually showing you in detail the actors being jostled. It reminds me of the very successful long running gag of the Radio show Fibber McGee and Molly and the opening of the door to the overloaded closet. The exaggerated sound effects of the closet’s contents falling on the actor’s heads conjured up a very vivid scene in the audience’s mind of the hysterically funny moment. The 39 Steps is much like an art piece designed with the Gestalt Theory in mind- whole is more than the sum of its parts and the audiences’ minds filling in the missing pieces. It is like a  striking painting of a tree that is missing a few parts of the tree here and there, but the interesting background, colors, and emphasis make the entire painting  (despite missing pieces of the trunk or other parts of the tree) much more vivid, interesting, and entertaining piece of art. Please excuse my scientific mind to try to explain why this version of 39 Steps works, but the continual references to the 1930’s (slapstick comedy, great comedy teams, entertainment utilizing merger items, the costumes, and so on) plus the uncanny ultra perfect timing of the actors with the special effects make the 39 Steps by the Fulton a very unified but mind appealing performance.

I must mention the anonymous Man 1 and Man 2 from the production. Like the anonymous spies in the 39 Steps, Man 1 and Man 2 do not have names. Instead they play character after character at a dizzy speed that you do not know (borrowing from Abbott and Costello) “Who’s on first”. From their great “spooky” entrance to their last little comedic scene they were like the great comedic teams from yester year ---Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and so on.