April 23-May 10: 'The 39 Steps'
University's REP to present 'Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps'
9:09 a.m., April 22, 2015--Take one juicy spy novel, mix in a healthy dose of Monty Python humor, add a dash of hilarious whodunit and the result is Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, a wildly inventive comedy to be presented by the University of Delaware Resident Ensemble Players (REP) April 23 through May 10 at the Roselle Center for the Arts.
Adapted by Patrick Barlow from Hitchcock’s film, The 39 Steps turns the “wrongly accused man on the run” plot on its head with a riotous a cast of four handling over 100 outrageous characters. Fast-paced and full of surprises, this send-up of Hitchcock’s thriller is a raucous farce of espionage, romance, and adventure.
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Richard Hannay discovers that the beautiful woman he meets at the theatre is a foreign spy, entangled in international espionage. When she turns up dead in his flat, he must go on the lam in a race from London to Scotland and back to prove that he is not a killer.
From a careening car chase to a train-top dash to a World War I biplane pursuit, Hannay perseveres in order to save himself and find the answer to the mystery of the “39 Steps.”
“You can’t. You just can’t tell this kind of story on the stage, with its chases and airplanes and trains. But they do,” says director J.R. Sullivan. “It’s like a circus act of four people telling a spectacularly reimagined tale of the original material with only simple props and an immense amount of imagination. I find the audacity of this play very funny. It has all forms of humor in it — it’s witty, ironic, and satiric with wonderful physical comedy. And it’s done in the most creatively absurd way possible.”
The 39 Steps opens on Saturday, April 25, and runs through Sunday, May 10, in the Thompson Theatre of the Roselle Center for the Arts.
Preview performances of the play are on Thursday and Friday, April 23 and 24, at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $23-$29, with discounts for students and seniors.
Additional fun can be found in the intimate Studio Theatre, right across the hall from the Thompson Theatre, with All in the Timing, a delightful collection of short comedies by David Ives.
Among Ives’ creations are three monkeys plotting revenge as they type out Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a con man peddling a bogus Universal Language, and a guy in a diner discovering that his very bad day is referred to as being “in a Philadelphia.”
Ives creates a whirlwind tour-de-force of wit and wordplay as he explores the riotous ways in which language both unites and divides.
All in the Timing plays through May 10.
Tickets for the productions can be purchased online at the REP website, by phone at 302-831-2204, or in person at the Roselle Center for the Arts, 110 Orchard Rd., Newark, Monday through Friday from noon until 5 p.m.
Free pre-show and post-show special events for the production can be found online.
The Roselle Center for the Arts is located at 110 Orchard Road, on the corner of Orchard Road and Kent Way, in Newark. A convenient parking garage is attached to the center.
A complete schedule, directions, and information on purchasing tickets can be found at the REP’s website or by calling the REP’s box office at 302-831-2204.
The REP’s performances are sponsored in part by the Delaware Division of the Arts. Artist transportation is provided in part by Amtrak.
About the Resident Ensemble Players
The Resident Ensemble Players (REP) is a professional theatre company located at the University of Delaware.
The REP’s mission is to engage audiences throughout the tri-state area with frequent productions of outstanding classic, modern and contemporary plays performed in a wide variety of styles that celebrate and demonstrate the range, breadth and ability to transform a full-time ensemble of nationally respected stage actors who have been trained in the same way.
The REP is committed to create future audiences for live theatre by offering its productions at low prices that enable and encourage the attendance of everyone in the region, regardless of income.
Photo by Nadine Howatt