The 39 Steps

By: Arya Sharma

On December 16th, Biotech’s Arts and Entertainment Club finally put on its first ever play,  The 39 Steps. The play was co-directed by senior Isabel Wallace and Michael Brennan, and the final piece was made possible with help from the set creators, stage crew, and other cast members.  

The Thirty-Steps was originally a book written by Tom Buchan in 1915. In 1935 it was adapted into a movie that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The latest parody of the book is the play which was written by Patrick Barlow in 2005. He turned the intense thriller into a comedy. The play had everything from comedy to romance to espionage. The plot follows Patrick Hannay, a Canadian visitor to 1930’s London. At the end of a “Mr. Memory” show he meets Annabella Smith who is on the run from foreign secret agents. He takes her back to his apartment, but later in the night, he finds her murdered. Hannay goes on the run to prove his innocence and break a spy ring. As he is on the run he meets Pamela, a charming young lady who he has many interesting encounters with. The cast included Ben Buckman as Patrick Hannay, Deeksha Kommireddi as Pamela, Tori Tiefenthaler as Anabella, Alison Pagalilauan as the Professor, and many others adding to the success of the play. Laura Vorbach as Stage Crew Director, Carey Lau as Art Director, and Mary Caldwell and Phoebe Dijour as Assistant Directors also contributed.  

This play kept the audience on the edge of its seats which came as no surprise, as Alfred Hitchcock is well known as the “Master of Suspense”. The play, unlike the movie and book, was thrilling yet comedic. It felt as if they were taken through time and magically transported to London in the 1930s. The actors and actresses had uncanny flawless accents ranging from British to Scottish.

Many of the other choices made by the cast played into the success of the play. Some of the actors were strategically places around the MPR to give the audience the essence that they were in the play. Real guns could obviously not be used, and they were replaced with fake glue guns and sound effects played exactly on time. In order to add a comedic effect, this play had a minimum number of cast members. Each of them played multiple roles, in order to make up for the intended lack of personnel . Another one of the features in this production included the lights. They were maneuvered by Daniel Levit and very punctual.

All the money that the Arts and Entertainment Club raised from ticket purchases from this play will be used to support the spring musical. And on top of everything else the musical was announced at the end of the play: The Beauty and the Beast! It was a truly impressive feat to put on this spectacular production, and none of it could be done without the help of the Arts and Entertainment Club’s advisor, Mr. Dannen.