‘The 39 steps’ is a hoot in Lenox

 

David Begelman, Theater Critic

If you remember the early classic Alfred Hitchcock film, “The 39 Steps,” you’ll probably also feel it can’t hold a candle to later movies directed by the master, like “Vertigo,” “Rear Window” or “The Birds.” And let’s not forget “Psycho,” that blood-curdling romp of bathtub murder laced with some pretty unnerving stuff about a killer who can’t tell the difference between himself and his mother. Murder in all its guises seems to be Hitch’s specialty, thankfully. Where can you come up with a director who can turn something so ugly into a thing of beauty?

No matter. Shakespeare & Company has mounted an innovative riff on John Buchan’s novel, adapted into a 1935 Hitchcock flick starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. The company’s hilarious treatment of the book and movie is so side-splitting funny, you can dispense with what its narrative line is all about. You won’t be able to understand it, anyhow. Just sit back and enjoy the goings on, configured by director Jonathan Croy from an adaptation of the novel and film by Patrick Barlow.

And if you’re shopping around for the best theater in the tri-state area for staging farce, go no farther. It’s Shakespeare & Company all the way. I venture to say the Lenox company is better at this genre than anything else, including Shakespeare. Although artistic director Tony Simotes’ smash hit of the bard’s “As You Like It” was nothing to sneeze at on any accounting. It’s when the company goes serious, as in the recently produced “The Tempest,” its past  “A Winter’s Tale” or “Othello” that the going gets a bit rough.

In the current production, three consummately talented performers take on all the roles. Never mind the obvious cost-cutting, belt tightening measures taken to stage a worthwhile production. The plain truth is that this production is so well directed, so enjoyable, that audiences are filling the Elayne P. Berstein Theatre to the brim. This reviewer had to wend his way through overcrowded seating to find his seat—midway through the run of the comedy, to boot.

In “The 39 Steps,” as in the Hitchcock flick, Richard Hannay (Jason Asprey) is an innocent enough Brit who is attending a London music hall production. Suddenly. Shots are fired, and the rest is history. Hannay is plunged into a world of intrigue, assassination attempts and embroilment in a Nazi scheme to pilfer British military secrets during World War II.

Again, no matter. Three performers take on a bewildering variety of roles that have you at the point of hysteria in audience seats. Asprey is in one role as Richard Hannay, the bewildered hero of the comedy, whereas Elizabeth Aspenlieder appears as three separate characters (mostly vamps). David Joseph takes on 14 roles, including the buck-toothed “Mr. Memory,” not to mention a slew of other unforgettable characters.

Josh Aaron McCabe, a talent for all seasons if ever there was, plays 15 separate characters, including women, old and young. It’s the rapid costume changes and sudden alterations of character that have you riveted in merriment over the course of the two-act comedy. See it.

“The 39 Steps” runs through November 4 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, Mass. Performances are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinees 2 p.m. Tickets are $15-$50 and may be purchased by calling the box office at 413-637-3353 or online at www.shakespeare.org.