Theatre Woodstock’s 39 Steps full of mystery and British humour

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

A parody of a spy thriller promises plenty of laughs during the chase around England and Northern Scotland.

Theatre Woodstock will run 39 Steps from April 17 to 29. The “whodunit” play by Patrick Barlow combines elements of the Alfred Hitchcock movie also called 39 Steps, a spy novel, and Monty Python-Esque humour to tell the story of a man with a dull life meeting a woman claiming that she’s a spy. After the woman is murdered, the 39 Steps organization chases after the man.

"It's just a fun show overall,” said director Rob Coles.

Coles said there is a lot of British humour and tactics akin to Monty Python’s works, and so far, there’s been a positive response during rehearsals.

"Some of it is obscure humour, it’s very colloquially British but we've had people coming in during rehearsals and some of the jokes I didn't know if they would get, they got,” he said.

Rehearsals overall are running smoothly and now the team is fine-tuning the show to expand the humour’s reach as wide as possible.

There are more than 150 characters in the play, with the majority played by two clown characters who each have between 40 and 50 roles.

"Some of it is very short, maybe about three or four words, but it's fast paced, and there's one part where they're at a train station and literally as they change the hat, they change the character,” he added.

The two clown characters have two base costumes and items are either added or subtracted throughout the show as characters change.

"For the four cast members, this is a huge undertaking, and for the two, there's a huge number of roles and also a huge number of lines,” Coles said. “They have to be convincing as to what characters they are, and I think they're doing a great job of accomplishing that.”

All tickets for 39 Steps are $28 each with the exception of the $20 Thrifty Thursday tickets. To purchase tickets, either visit the box office on 22 Reeve St., call 519-537-2582 or visit www.theatrewoodstock.com to purchase online.