Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of John Buchan’s novel, “The 39 Steps,” has become a global sensation over the last decade.
In case you’re not addicted to vintage movies, here’s the story: Richard Hannay, prototypical Hitchcock-innocent Everyman, suddenly finds himself implicated in a plot that includes espionage, assassination and top-secret intrigues. It’s a double-chase scenario, which finds the cops chasing Hannay, while Hannay chases the actual bad guys. Along the way, he encounters a trio of women and dozens of other characters. Barlow’s adaptation is based on a verbatim transcript of the movie (there is no official screenplay), but squeezes all the roles down to just four cast members: Hannay; three women played by a single actress and two “Clowns,” who portray the many other characters who cross Hannay’s path.
Barlow’s adaptation has won, or been nominated for, some of the most-prestigious awards in theater. But to my way of thinking, the most intriguing item in the trophy case — more tantalizing even than The Laurence Olivier award for Best New Comedy — is the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.
Somehow, that award really grabs me. And it turns out that, by design, every production is unique. In the script production notes, Barlow includes his stage directions and ideas, and then basically advises subsequent productions to disregard them: “Don’t be bound by the instructions on the page,” he writes. “Just take what looks helpful or fun, then invent the rest.”
For David Ryan Smith and Zuzanna Szadkowski, two of the four cast members in the Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) production that opens this week, creative mandate is part of the production’s appeal.
Smith, 38, who plays Hannay, is an ATL veteran who has given some memorable performances in recent Humana Festival productions (“The Grown-Up” and “The Glory of the World”). And he has built an impressive career in regional theater and on and off Broadway (“One Man, Two Guvnors” and “Passing Strange”), and he has had frequent roles at The Public Theater in New York City.
Szadkowski, 37, making her ATL debut, plays the three women (Annabella, Pamela and Margaret), who shape Hannay’s wild and wonderful journey. She has an extensive theater background (including Nora and Delia Ephron’s “Love, Loss, and What I Wore”), as well as TV and film (most notably “Gossip Girl” and “The Knick”).
“The text is taken almost verbatim from the movie,” said Szadkowski, “but Nathan [Keepers who directs the production] led us to really mine the script to define the characters, relationships and ideas with very specific, detailed bits and physical language.”
“Some of the action is naturally embedded in the script,” added Smith, “but we really worked from scratch to create a fresh new take.” And though the script is nearly verbatim, he continued, it’s not sacrosanct. “The play take place during an election year,” he noted with a hint of a grin. And I do get to make a speech at a political rally…”
Apart from the split-second backstage choreography demanded from the costumers and stage managers responsible for creating dozens of characters and locations, Barlow’s four-person take on Hitchcock’s script also demands strong individual and ensemble stage skills, said Szadkowski, citing the dialects, physical mannerisms, the rapid fire velocity of Hitchcock’s dialogue and the flexibility to improvise and engage as needed in a fast-flowing production that often breaks through the fourth wall to engage with the audience.
It turns out that Szadkowski and Smith already have a track record in a similar context: They were paired last year as Egeon and the Duchess in The Public Theater Mobile Unit’s production of Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors.” Mobile Unit productions begin as touring productions that visit dozens of venues (including prisons, community centers and homeless shelters) before coming to rest for a run on The Public’s home stage.
It was great preparation for this production, said Smith. “In its way,” he said, “the script is very Shakespearian. It’s full of very sophisticated wordplay and tricky rhythms. And, in a Mobile Unit production, you experience all kinds of crazy scenarios that teach you to rely on one another and develop a kind of acting shorthand with one another.”
“The 39 Steps” plays as an adventure comedy — but Smith and Szadkowski agreed that there’s something more to it than that. “The fun part for me,” said Szadkowski, is that each of the characters has a full life, each has an arc, and as the story unfolds, each one brings the outside world into Hannay’s life and triggers some kind of change.”
It’s not just a collection of laughs and caricatures, added Smith. “It is basically a spy story. But it’s also about a character who is opening your eyes to the world and finding a way to be alive, find a way to trust someone and to leaning to love. I think the message here is that you don’t need to sleep through your life.”
And there’s no way you’re going to sleep through this play. •
through Sept. 18 “The 39 Steps” Actors Theatre of Louisville 316 W. Main St., 584-1205 actorstheatre.org
