New City Players’ The 39 Steps Revels In Wicked Lampoon

Villain Karlen Edean and Hero Brandon Campbell clowning in New City Players’ The 39 Steps (Photos by Kevin Ondarza)

By Bill Hirschman

Comic theater is a challenging adroit meld of wry humor, physical slapstick, verbal timing, invisible stagecraft and a devotion to maximizing the opportunities for unscripted bits of business.

All of this is delivered with an infectious joy in New City Players’ rendition of the ever-reliable The 39 Steps. It reigns as one of the most produced award-winning modern plays in world theaters as well as by scores upon scores of American regional companies.

This wicked satire of spy novels and films is imbued with the intentional sense of a clown show – all but one character wears makeup simulating a red bulbous clown nose.

The performances under Ali Tallman’s deft direction not only goes over the top intentionally but then stands atop the structure and twirls. The company seems to be having a hell of a good time and the opening night audience was perpetually giggling, grinning and sometimes stopping the show with applause.

John Buchan’s original 1915 novel was meant as a straight spy thriller with some wry British humor. Alfred Hitchcock’s liberally adapted 1935 film investing his classic tongue-in-cheek vibe. And this Patrick Barlow adaptation penned in 2005 is a supposed thriller but liberally suffused with the entire vaudeville encyclopedia performed by only four actors.

New City Players’ choice leans into the humor; there isn’t much sense of anticipated danger. Similarly, they barely respect Barlow’s semi-serious theme in not-so-subtle announcements as a shallow, bored sophisticate hero finds a sense of self through his adventure.

In this storytelling, Richard Hannay (a recurring Buchan hero) is visiting London a few weeks before what no one knows will be World War II. Hannay meets mysterious vampish spy Annabella at a music hall where a Mr. Memory can answer any question. When she comes to Hannay’s flat, she is murdered after she reveals the theft of a government secret on the verge of being given to a foreign government by a spy network. With the cops and the assassins on his tail as the suspected killer, Hannay flees on a complex trip to Scotland to find Annabella’s mysterious contact, Professor Jordan, with an unwilling heroine in tow.

Got all that? Don’t worry if you don’t. The story isn’t the point; the journey is.

Brandon Campbell admires the mysterious heroine Camille Schiavone (Notice her nose)

Tallman’s boundless imagination and endless energy merges with that of her equally invested cast who all indulge in the script’s specific invitation for the liberal unrestrained exercise of hilarity. To wit, one character delivers a protracted groan as long and mellifluous as an opera diva’s aria.

Tallman’s Brightline express pacing keeps this slightly too long script moving pretty well. She allows it to breathe a bit when a scene contains opportunities for those bits of business to explore such as when the antagonistic heroine handcuffed to the hero pointedly seductively takes off her stockings before coming to bed.

The imagination and skill is evident from the opening scene in which four unidentified trench-coated figures flit in and out of a complex mimed ballet through the half-light, handing off a messenger case that we will learn has great import.

Brandon Campbell disappears inside the classic cultured British (actually Canadian) protagonist with brown wavy hair, pencil moustache and ascot. Camille Schiavone is the slinky spy Annabela, then farmgirl Margaret and finally the blonde heroine Pamela.

There is not enough room to list the more than a score of roles each that the elastic Rayner Gabriel and Kalen Edean play as the clowns. Their mutations – sometimes in a few seconds, sometimes instantly before your eyes – might benefit from switching hats, wigs, glasses, beards, moustaches and sideburns, yes, but primarily through identifiably different postures, characterizations and accents from every corner of the British Isles. On occasion, their accents which are meant to be funny mumbling gets unintentionally unintelligible and some of the humorous back and forth gets lost.

But in one scene at a train station, the two instantly spin over and over from conductor, paperboy, salesman passenger, lady passenger, policeman and likely a couple of other roles. We rarely recommend Carbonell or Silver Palm nominations in reviews but their double act and their individual work throughout deserve a special nod.

Michael McClain’s vintage setting in the intimate-sized space at the Island City Stage is an off-duty vaudeville stage with scattered steamer trunks, empty picture frames, in front of a brick back wall and under a multi-colored stage arch complete with working bulbs.

The atmospheric environment is enhanced by the required expectation of sound effects from train chugging to cows mooing by Andrea Guardo-Cuao, the closet full of props by Jameelah Bailey, period costuming by Casey Sacco, and most notably the oft-spooky lighting design by Annabel Herrera with rays of light cutting through the misty haze and shadows.

But two other sets of heroine/heroes should have been able to take a bow for precisely managing the intricate and often incessant interplay of the above effects. First, Resident Stage Manager Amber Mandic, Assistant Stage Manager Guardo-Cuao, Technical Director Johnbarry Green and board operator Elon Donovan who must be getting as much of a workout as the cast.

Second, we assume the actors helped each other change costumes, but Guardo-Cuao and run crew Summer Davis were integrally involved in the intricate choreography of costume changes off stage.

In a time of dispiriting drama in real life, it’s heartening to see New City Players opening its 10th anniversary unapologetically chewing the scenery.

(Note: The original Buchan book is easily found online for free. Also there is a Facebook posted video that gives a good sense of the production at https://www.facebook.com/reel/979073474378648)

The 39 Steps from New City Players runs through Oct. 19 at the Island City Stage facility at 2304 N. Dixie Hwy, Wilton Manors. (south of Oakland Park Blvd.) 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sundays. Runs two hours plus a 15-minute intermission. Sundays have a talkback with the cast and creative team. Tickets are $42.80 with ticketing fee at https://newcityplayers.org.

Kalen Edean and Rayner Gabriel in a serious dramatic moment