NEW HEIGHTS
Ravi Jain gets physical with Soulpepper’s production of Hitchcock classic ‘The 39 Steps’,
The 39 Steps★★★1/2 (out of 4) Written by Patrick Barlow, adapted from the novel by John Buchan and the film by Alfred Hitchcock. Until Aug. 27 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Lane. soulpepper.ca or 416-866-8666
Ravi Jain has already proven his mettle with social commentary in plays like We Are Proud to Present . . . and The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, on now at the Shaw Festival.
He can also tug your heartstrings, as he did with Factory Theatre’s SaltWater Moon, for which he won a Dora Award. Now, with The 39 Steps for Soulpepper Theatre, Jain has tapped into his physical theatre background as a graduate of Paris’s École Jacques Lécoq to deliver one of the best comedies Soulpepper has produced in a while.
The 39 Steps (1935) isn’t one of Hitchcock’s best-known films, but the bones of the plot are in Patrick Barlow’s adaptation: 30-something London bachelor Richard Hannay (Kawa Ada) is at the theatre when his seatmate, the mysterious Annabella Schmidt (Raquel Duffy), shoots a gun to create a diversion so she can escape back to Hannay’s apartment, where she reveals secrets about an espionage ring.
When she’s murdered in the middle of the night, the manhunt for Hannay sends him to Scotland and across the paths of farmer’s wife Margaret and sultry blond Pamela (both also played by Duffy).
But Duffy’s triple-duty is almost child’s play; Andrew Shaver and Anand Rajaram play Clown 1 and Clown 2, but only because to name all of their respective roles would likely take up most of the program.
In total, the four actors portray more than 150 characters, but most of the legwork is given to the two clowns, who switch in record speed from milkmen to secret agents to a pair of married hotel clerks.
The physical feat of it alone is interesting to watch (and becomes part of the gag, under Jain’s keen eye for comedic opportunity), but any con- cerns about confusion are unwarranted. Rajaram and Shaver manage to make even the smallest of characters unique in physicality and voice, and are revelations in their Soulpepper mainstage debuts.
Ada may be in his comfort zone as the straight man, but his ultra-suave Hannay knows how to hit a punch line, too, in the driest of deadpans. Shaver and Rajaram often steal the scene, but Ada doubles the laughter with his withering stares, urging the clowns to finish their business so his story can continue.
In Hannay, Jain spoofs the typical debonair film noir leading man by exaggerating his attractiveness to everyone around him.
Characters are constantly falling over themselves around him, sometimes literally, and Shaver’s polished traveller can’t seem to keep his hands off him.
Duffy comes off stiff in comparison to the acrobatics of her co-stars. Her satiric femme fatale Annabella plays it safe in a first act that runs at a breakneck speed.
The 39 Steps is chock-a-block with cinematic references — listen closely for nods to Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, Psycho, North by Northwest, The Birds and more — but it is also Jain’s love letter to “poor theatre” as he transitions from running his own company to being an associate artistic director at Soulpepper.
Ken MacKenzie’s set is a barebones proscenium stage with industrial accents, and the props and special effects are sparse and rudimentary.
This production even forgoes prop guns and instead has the actors mime shooting with their hands, which works both as a gag and a political statement about gun violence.
The result is a very joyful production, despite the dark overtones of rising fascism that Jain injects into the fun.