‘The 39 Steps’, 49 roles and four actors, the result: Pure comedy
View(s):The Performing Arts Company (PAC) returns to the Colombo theatre scene with the challenging production of a spoof on an Alfred Hitchcock classic.Here Smriti Daniel speaks to producer and actor, Mohamed Adamally
There’s a real dearth of actors onstage but don’t worry, it’s deliberate. The ludicrousness of just four people taking on this play, the strange child of the 1915 novel by John Buchanan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock, is built into the script. All three versions have the same name – ‘The 39 Steps’ – and at least in terms of plot, the play has a great deal in common with the movie and the book. However, it’s spectacularly ambitious in what it demands of its performers.
Adam and Nadira: Co-producers
“You don’t need to have seen the 1930’s movie to enjoy this play,” says Mohamed Adamally, who is one of the producers as well as an actor in the production. He adds: “You don’t even need to know anything about Alfred Hitchcock to roll off the chair laughing nor do you need to be a theatre enthusiast to be in awe and mystified by the magic of illusion and imagination created on stage in a live performance!” Co-producing the performance is Adam’s sister Nadira Adamally but in the director’s chair is his wife and The Performing Arts Company co-founder Nafeesa K. Amiruddeen. (We’ll be catching up with her next week.) Starring in the production are veteran thespians Mohamed Adamaly, Dr. Sean Amarasekera, Arjuna Wignaraja and Ashini Fernando.
Adam describes the play as an “exercise in wild imagination” for both the actors and the audience. Between the four of them, Adam, Sean, Arjuna and Ashini juggle 49 roles, race through 38 scenes performed in under two hours, and pull off over a hundred plus costume changes. Only adding to the controlled chaos is the complex lighting and “a zillion sound effects.” If it sounds overwhelming, it’s probably because it is. This is physical and ‘total’ theatre in its most creative and extreme form,” says Adam.“Every single aspect of a stage production is tested to the absolute maximum.”
The result? Pure comedy. “Hitchcock’s tense spy story is beautifully spoofed and played mainly for laughs,” says Adam, adding that the Hitchcock enthusiast will find many allusions in the script to and puns on the titles of Hitchcock classics, including Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest.
However demanding, it’s a recipe that’s worked well for other productions. ‘The 39 Steps’ won the Lawrence Olivier award for the Comedy Theatre of the Year in the UK, and is running in London’s West End to packed houses and rave reviews. The play also won the 2008 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience and Outstanding Lighting Design. It won two Tony Awards for Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design, and was nominated for four other Tonys: Best Play, Best Direction of a Play, Best Scenic Design of a Play and Best Costume Design of a Play.
The production marks the return of The Performing Arts Company (PAC) to the Colombo theatre scene. Their packed resume already boasts productions of ‘Run For Your Wife’ (1994 and again in 2002), ‘Don’t Dress For Dinner’ (1995), ‘Funny Money’ (1996), ‘Black Comedy’ (1999), and ‘Caught in the Net’ (2005), two thrillers – ‘Deathtrap’ in 1997 and ‘Death and the Maiden’ – and more recently, the enchanting ‘Waiting Room’and the drama ‘Love Letters.’ The producers promise that ‘The 39 Steps’ will only up the ante. How could it not, when you consider Adam’s description? “A classic Hitchcock thriller that is spoofed in a way that the Master of Macabre would approve – you will literally die…laughing!”
The Performing Arts Company present 39 Steps directed by Nafeesa K. Amiruddeen at the Lionel Wendt Theatre from May 11 to 19 with a break on the 15th.Tickets can be prebooked via FB page’The 39 Steps – at The Lionel Wendt Theatre,’and will go on sale at the Wendt from April 25. Tickets are priced at Rs.2000, Rs.1500, Rs.1200 and Rs.700 downstairs and Rs.500 in balcony.The principal sponsor is Cargills, in aid of the One Trust. Co-Sponsor – Commercial Bank.Media Sponsors are the Sunday Times, the Daily Mirror and TNL Lite. The communications partner is Triad, suiting partner Hameedias and sounds partner Soundtrax.
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