'The 39 Steps' review – it's no mystery why this gleefully silly spy parody remains an audience favourite

Read our review of comedy The 39 Steps, a hilarious send-up of John Buchan and Hitchcock, now in performances at the Trafalgar Theatre to 28 September.

What a joy to have Patrick Barlow’s Olivier Award-winning comedy The 39 Steps back in the West End for the first time since 2015. This simultaneously very skilful and very silly spoof of John Buchan’s spy novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film adaptation has conquered the world, but its innate British humour means that this feels like an apt homecoming.

Our stiff-upper-lipped hero is Richard Hannay, a bored civilian who gets drawn into a deadly game of espionage and international conspiracies when he meets a femme fatale while attending a West End show (of course, theatre leads to adventure!). Soon he’s racing across Scotland, wrongly accused of murder, and trying to evade both the police and a gang of dastardly Germans.

The thoroughly enjoyable gag is that this action-packed thriller is being told in a deliberately lo-fi theatrical way, with a cast of four extraordinarily hard-working actors doing costume quick-changes and dragging on various props to evoke everything from a train to the Forth Bridge. One moment you’ll be giggling at the sheer ridiculousness, the next gasping at a surprisingly brilliant coup de théâtre.

If this comic language feels familiar, it’s because The 39 Steps is such a clear influence on other current West End hits, especially Operation Mincemeat and Mischief shows like The Play That Goes Wrong. This vaudevillian production also pays homage to our theatrical heritage – appropriate given that the story’s breathless climax hinges on a music hall performance.

Tom Byrne gives his tweed-suited Hannay an amusing upper-class insouciance. He’s particularly funny when trying, with teeth-gritted politeness, to decipher an unintelligible response from one of the many bewildering people he encounters, such as his Germanic paramour’s insistence that he is now “in-wolved”.

Safeen Ladha is a hoot as Hannay’s various love interests, which also include a pining Highlands housewife and a haughty blonde, Pamela, with such clipped vowels that she almost swallows them whole. Amidst all the hilarity, she and Byrne manage to make a scene where a handcuffed Pamela and Hannay are hiding out in a hotel genuinely sensual.

Eugene McCoy and Maddie Rice take on countless characters, sometimes in the same scene, while swapping hats, coats and accents. There’s range, and then there’s dashing between a cockney milkman, a cackling Bond villain, a boisterous salesman, a Scotland Yard detective, and a music hall emcee, all in one show – seriously impressive work.

Tour director Nicola Samer, remounting Maria Aitken’s original production, needs to up the pace a bit. But you have to admire the sheer invention here, with a key assist from movement director Toby Sedgwick. My favourite joke is still the chase on top of the train, where the actors flap their coats to simulate the wind, although I also love the running gag around the hasty appearance of a lamppost.

An epic manhunt across the moors is achieved with shadow puppetry, Mic Pool’s sound design gives us instant changes of mood, such as sweeping strings for romantic tension, and Ian Scott’s clever lighting both aids the storytelling and supplies some atmospheric, even eerie, moments. There’s also a plethora of playful Hitchcock references if you want to fill your bingo card.

It’s no mystery why this affectionate parody is still delighting audiences. Balancing suspense with slapstick, and a cracking yarn with theatrical in-jokes, it’s a welcome piece of thoroughly escapist entertainment.

The 39 Steps is at the Trafalgar Theatre through 28 September. Book The 39 Steps tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: The 39 Steps (Photos by Mark Senior)