SMITHFIELD – Famed film director Alfred Hitchcock is probably spinning in his grave, but even he’d have to admit that the Four Seasons production of his classic 1935 movie “The 39 Steps” is a physical comedy laugh riot.
The 39 Steps is a comic parody of Hitchcock’s version of the more than 100-year-old spy novel, executed with manic intensity by four gifted performers. The Four Seasons Theatre Company here has slated performances of the fairly modern adaptation of the Hitchcock tale through Saturday, Aug. 10.
The comedy is something of a departure for the Smithfield troupe. It’s their first ever non-musical production. Moreover, instead of playing to the enormous auditorium at Sky View High School, director Jonathan Rash has packed the apron of the stage and its wings with 164 folding chairs to put the audience at arms-length to the actors.
That proximity makes the actors’ performances even more hilarious, if that’s even possible. The four of them take up the challenge of portraying all the innumerable denizens of Hitchcock film with rapid-fire changes of costume, brilliant characterizations, convincing accents and buckets of sweat.
Rash has assembled what the calls an all-star cast and their experience shows.
Sam Petersen has got the easy role; all he has to do play the protagonist Richard Hannay, an innocent bystander who gets mixed up in a game of spies.
Petersen’s previous experience includes playing the narrator in the Four Season’s production of A Christmas Story in 2023. In The 39 Steps he has the somewhat unenviable task of mostly playing straight man for his fellow actors.
The play’s lone actress, Celeste Baillio, portrays three women with whom Hannay has romantic entanglements as the play progresses. Those characterization include Annabella Schmidt, a German femme fatale who starts Hannay on his quest; Margaret, a love-starved Scottish innkeeper; and Pamela, the reluctant companion to whom Hannay get handcuffed.
With a list of stage credits as long as your arm, Ms. Baillio deftly handles those roles without batting an eyelash.
Appearing as Clowns 1 and 2 are Clifton Richards and Kyle Cottam, who do the majority of the play’s heavy lifting, switching roles and accents at the drop of a hat – literally. Both deliver performances that are wildly over the top.
In addition to its unrestrained physical comedy, The 39 Steps is also chock-full of Hitchcock movie references and inside jokes. For example, Margaret tells Hannay to escape through her inn’s “rear window.” Get it?
Later, Hannay just happens to get strafed by a passing aeroplane, like Cary Grant in “North by Northwest.”
And, of course, what send-up of an English movie would be complete without someone not be able to understand a thick Scottish brogue?
Anyone interested in seeing this outstanding production of The 39 Steps should get in line for tickets as soon as possible. Those 164 seats that are available each night are going to go fast.
Sky View High School is located at 520 South, 250 East in Smithfield.