Irene Macdougall discovered plenty of mystery when she
read John Buchan’s classic adventure novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps. Yet, despite
the devil-may-care appeal of Buchan’s ripping yarn concerning square-jawed hero
Scot Richard Hannay’s flight into international intrigue, the biggest mystery
of all was that the book contained no female characters. Not one woman, it
seemed, was worthy of Buchan’s imagination to accompany Hannay, either as his
partner-in-crime in assorted derring-do or else be his nemesis, sidekick or any
other second fiddle position.
This was something even Alfred Hitchcock though odd
back in 1935 when he adapted the first of Buchan’s five Richard Hannay novels for
the big screen after reading it as a teenager fifteen years earlier. Recognising
the book’s lack of a feminine touch, Hitchcock addressed the issue to the film’s
considerable benefit.
It was to Hitchcock’s loose adaptation of Buchan’s
story that Macdougall turned to when looking at possibilities for Dundee Rep’s community
tour. As a long-standing member of the Rep’s acting ensemble, Macdougall was
aware more than most of the need for something portable, but which could still
employ the full range of a mixed gender ensemble.
It was then that she chanced upon American writer Joe
Landry’s stage version of the story, which presents it as a live 1940s style radio
play, with five actors playing all the parts as well as becoming Foley artists
to provide assorted sound effects. Macdougall had struck gold.
“The book is a real boy’s own type of novel, with no
women in it at all, but it’s the Hitchcock adaptation that people largely
remember,” she says. “He turned one male character into a woman as well as giving
Hannay a love interest, and that made for a much more interesting proposition.
“I think Hitchcock’s film is very important in terms
of perceptions of the story. That’s the story everyone remembers, and the film
with Kenneth More that came out later changed things slightly again, and then
there was another film of it with Robert Powell. The only time the book’s been
done faithfully is on the radio, and when we first started talking about doing
The 39 Steps, there was an element of whether we should do the book or not, but
in the end the way we’re doing it felt like the right way.”
This isn’t the first time Macdougall has directed a
radio-style version of a classic. In 2012, she oversaw the Rep’s production of
Whisky Galore, Compton Mackenzie’s much loved tale, which had been adapted for
the stage by Paul Godfrey. As with The 39 Steps, the show toured community
venues around Dundee.
“Our audiences tended to like that,” Macdougall
remembers. “We’ve made them sit through an awful lot of very serious stuff over
the years, so it’s good to go with something lighter once in a while. Having
said that, Whisky Galore was a lot of fun, but The 39 Steps is a different
kettle of fish entirely. Where Whisky Galore had a lot of different characters,
The 39 Steps is about one man on the run and the relationship he has with this
woman.”
Landry’s take on The 39 Steps originally formed part
of Vintage Hitchcock, a triple bill of work with Buchan’s story seen alongside
The Lodger and Sabotage, and featuring renderings of vintage commercials to
give extra added authenticity. Landry has pulled off a similar trick with
several big screen classics, including It’s a Wonderful Life and Meet Me in St
Louis. He has also done a live radio version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas
Carol, as well as one of H.G. Wells’ classic science-fiction novel, war of the
Worlds. This was inspired by and included the infamous 1938 radio version that
sent shockwaves across America. Reimagined
as if being presented during the early days of BBC Scotland, Macdougall’s production
of The 39 Steps is “like a little time capsule.”
Landry’s staging of Hitchcock’s take on Buchan’s story
isn’t the only version it’s been seen in. In 1995, a four-actor version was
written by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon for a production at the Georgian
Theatre Royal in Richmond, Yorkshire, which toured village halls in the north
of England. The conceit of such a pocket-sized version was that it was played
as if thrown together by a theatre company with no money. While such a
suggestion might not have been far from the truth, the show was played as a
comic pastiche.
A decade later, Patrick Barlow rewrote the script for
a new production at West Yorkshire Playhouse, before one-time Citizens Theatre
actress Maria Aitken directed its London premiere at the Tricycle Theatre.
Aitken’s production went on to become a hit in the West End and on Broadway.
“We looked at doing Patrick Barlow’s version,” says
Macdougall, “but in the end we wanted to use more actors than it allows for.
The whole fun of it is that it’s played by a deliberately small cast, whereas
what we’re doing is something different.”
Macdougall’s production of The 39 Steps hits the road
just as the second season under artistic director Andrew Panton has been
announced. This will open at the end of August with The Yellow on the Broom,
Anne Downie’s adaptation of Betsy Whyte’s novel. It will be followed in October
by a revival of Gregory Burke’s sensational debut play, Gagarin Way, in a new
production by Cora Bissett.
A new version of The Snow Queen co-commissioned with
the Citizens Theatre Glasgow and penned by Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie,
aka Noisemaker, will form the Rep’s Christmas show. For one night only, Gilmour
and McKenzie will also premiere Hi, My Name is Ben, a new musical developed
with the Scottish Ensemble.
In 2019, former Dundee Rep artistic director Jemima
Levick will return to oversee a new production of Arthur Miller’s play, All My
Sons. There will also be a full programme by Scottish Dance Theatre, as well as
a still to be announced community tour this time next year.
Beyond the ensemble company’s regular programme, the
season’s potentially most intriguing proposition is Rep Stripped, a new
platform for artists at all levels to present still developing work in a series
of readings, scratch performances and other work-in-progress type displays. Whether
such an initiative will have any long-term impact on Dundee Rep’s programming
in a way that might filter into the community tour remains to be seen. What is
certain is that the evergreen appeal of a title like The 39 Steps is still
intact, and that seeing it done in such an intimate fashion as with Macdougall’s
production should transcend the novelty value of its radio-play rendering to
make for a very busy evening.
“By having the actors create all the sounds as part of
the play, there’s a visual aspect to it as well,” says Macdougall. “It’s
slightly less obvious than in Whisky Galore, but there are slamming doors,
there are bells, and there are whistles.”
The 39 Steps: A Live Radio Play, The Crescent,
Whitfield, tonight; Finmill Community Centre, tomorrow; Murthly Village Hall,
Saturday; Brechin Community Campus, June 12; Ardler Community Centre, June 13;
Dibble Tree Theatre, Carnoustie, June 14; Menzieshill Community Centre, June
15; Rio Community Centre, Newport, June 16; Kirriemuir Town Hall, June 19;
Forfar Reid Hall, June 20; Maxwell Centre, Hilltown, June 21; Douglas Community
Centre, June 22; Eassie and Nevay Hall, June 23.
The Herald, June 7th 2018
ends
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