Chagrin Valley Little Theatre

The 39 Stepsadapted by Patrick Barlow

Performance Dates & Tickets

About the Play

A mysterious spy ring turns one man's boring life into a madcap chase around the Scottish countryside.

Director: Daniel Takacs

Patrick Barlow's hilarious comedy, The 39 Steps, is based on Alfred Hitchcock's famous 1935 film more-so than John Buchan's original 1915 spy novel. Where Buchan's story is a gripping thriller, and the Hitchcock film adds humor and romance, Barlow created a spoof that uses just a small handful of actors (Eric Oswald, Amy Pelleg, Leah Frires, Lisa Tarr, and Michael Prosen) with lightning-fast costume changes to play heroes, villains, men, women, children, and even the occasional inanimate object. The Broadway production was the longest running play of the 2000s decade.

The story revolves around a debonair gentleman-adventurer, Richard Hannay, who discovers that a foreign enemy spy ring is trying to smuggle scientific-military secrets out of Britain. In classic derring-do style, he sets out to stop them single-handedly while also being chased by the police who, wrongly, of course, suspect him of murder!