39 Steps

On Friday night I went to see "39 Steps" at the Guthrie with some roommates from college.  One of my roommates lives in Isanti and we drove together.  The other roommate lives in Plymouth and met us there.  Because of the weather conditions, I ended up spending a long time with the roommate from Isanti and very little with the one from Plymouth.  We had a white-knuckle ride there and back home again.  Our plan was to meet at 5:30 and have dinner before the show. We arrived at 6:45 and had to gulp our food to make the show on time.  They held the show for seven minutes because of the weather.  How they came up with seven minutes I don't know.  30 Steps is considered to be a farce comedy; more funny than mystery.  Some parts were slapstick and some were vaudeville.  The play moves so fast you don't really have time to appreciate everything that goes on.  39 Steps has four actors.  The lead actor plays himself the entire show.  The lead actress plays about 4 parts.  The two supporting actors play about 30 characters each.  Sometimes the supporting actor's characters change so fast all they have time to do is change hats and act differently.   I think the supporting actors showed more talent because their roles called for more talent.  The play alludes to other Hitchcock films.  One segment of the action went into a shadow puppet mode.  The lead character's puppet is carried away by a flock of birds (The Birds), dropped into a lake, is rescued by the Lockness Monster, gets a big kiss from the Lockness Monster, talks about the northwest corner of the lake (North by Northwest), and going out the rear window (Rear Window).  We also see a big shadow of Alfred Hitchcock himself.  The play pokes fun of the Germans, the British, and the Scots.  39 Steps is one of those plays that you could see ten times and appreciate different humor every time.