When Director Catherine Clyne and her husband, Kevin, first saw the blend of farce and suspense that is the stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” in New York several years back, she knew she had to bring the play out to audiences on Long Island.
Pictured Above: Kevin Clyne, Anna Tatishvili, Adam Mosebach and Eric Clavell in rehearsal for The 39 Steps. |. Dane DuPuis photo for HTC
In this show, four actors on a minimalist set portray more than 150 characters in a madcap retelling of the Hitchcock film, in which a mysterious woman is murdered in the apartment of our hero, Richard Hannay, forcing him on the run across Britain attempting to clear his name and uncover the secret of “The 39 Steps.”
The show opens this evening, May 21, for a three-week run at the Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue, with Ms. Clyne at the helm for the second time — she last directed this play two years ago at Playcrafters in Bellport.
The play was adapted by Patrick Barlow, “widely known for his imaginative comic writing and for reshaping classic material into boldly theatrical entertainment,” according to the Hampton Theatre Company. It was based on a conceptual re-envisioning of the film by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon. The Alfred Hitchcock film was itself adapted from a novel by John Buchan.
This telephone game of influences feeds in to the rapid-fire comedy.
“It’s so uniquely funny — they’ve taken this serious Alfred Hitchcock movie and turned it into a farce,” said Ms. Clyne in an interview with The Beacon this week. “This story is, almost exactly, the story told in the film, but because of how stylized the acting was at that time, it just works. British humor tries to take itself more seriously and it just makes it more funny. There are definitely elements of Monty Python in this.”
The cast of four includes three veteran actors who are newcomers to the HTC stage.
Adam Mosebach plays just one big character, Richard Hannay, the man on the run who ends up playing the straight man to the other crazy characters.
“His reaction to everything is just hysterical,” says Ms. Clyne.
Anna Tatishvilli plays Annabella Schmidt, Margaret, and Pamela, three of Hannay’s love interests — “a sexy spy, an innocent country girl and an average English woman who gets drawn into this crazy story with him,” according to the director.
Kevin Clyne, Ms. Clyne’s husband, plays multiple roles as Clown 2, along with Clown 1, Eric Clavell, who you may have seen on stage in HTC’s 2010 production of the stamp-collecting intrigue “Mauritius.”
“He’s terrific — he loves this kind of humor,” said Ms. Clyne of her husband. “If he wasn’t, I wouldn’t have cast him. The two guys who play the Clown parts are phenomenal.”
With a limited set consisting of not much more than props, this production leans heavily on masterful lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski and the prowess of the rest of the backstage team at HTC.
“The technical aspects of directing this have been very challenging — there are hundreds of cues and the technical staff is just as important as the actors — there are 33 scenes and they come so close together,” said Ms. Clyne, a 30-year veteran director who directed HTC’s 2025 production of “Boeing, Boeing.” “We’re so fortunate to have people who really know what they’re doing behind the scenes, and it’s ingenious the way they have them staged. I know the actors are up for it. They have the experience and the talent.”
As for audiences?
“I hope they come away feeling lighter and happier,” said Ms. Clyne. We all need that right now.”
“The 39 Steps” runs May 21 through June 7 at the Quogue Community Hall at 125 Jessup Ave. in Quogue. Performance times are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. There will also be an additional 2:30 p.m. matinee on Saturday, June 6. Two talkbacks with audience members will be offered immediately following the 7 p.m. performances on Friday, May 29, and Friday, June 5.
Tickets are available by visiting Hamptontheatre.org or by calling 631-653-8955.
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