Theater Review: The 39 Steps

                The four stars of "The 39 Steps"

Scripps Ranch Theatre does some interesting – if not downright weird –productions. I think this latest is the weirdest yet.

With only four actors, Patrick Barlow has rewritten a 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film script into a lickety-split theatrical action thriller that features more than 50 roles. You read that right, four actors, 50-plus roles and settings from London to Edinburgh to the Scottish moors and even the London Palladium. And all within a two-hour show with one intermission.

Directed by Phil Johnson and featuring many of SRT’s regulars on the production team, the show rocks and rolls through one craziness after another and just makes you wonder what could be coming next.

Does any of it make sense? What difference does it make? It’ll make you giggle and wonder what’s next, and isn’t that good enough?

Sure it is. Trust me.

Bravi to the four actors: clowns Katelyn Slater (of huge eyes and a bigger smile) and Chris Braden and two actual characters, one handsome guy played by Marley Bauer and three very different women played by Melanie Mino.

Bravi also to the production team, especially set designer Yi-Chien Lee, lighting by Michelle Miles, costumes by Caprice Shirley, props by Justin Magallanes and sound design by Patrick J Duffy.

“The 39 Steps” is perhaps a bit longer than necessary, but it never lacks for jokes, observable silliness or downright fun, and there’s a lot to be said for that.