Clever farce brings the house down
9:04am Thursday 1st December 2011 in Theatre By Julian Thorpe
The 39 Steps
Marco Players
Chorley Old Road Methodist Church
Tickets 01204 841561 or 451005
WHEN John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps was published in 1915, it reportedly cheered up the good folks fighting in the trenches during the First World War.
The Marco Players' version of the story performs a similar function, opening on the day Britain's public sector decided to walk out on strike.
Well, alright, perhaps having your pension cut isn't quite as bad as dying of trench foot while being shot at and blown up in the name of king and country, but hey, it's a recession and we all need cheering up.
And cheer you up it will - the theatrical adaptation of Buchan's classic novel is less a tale of far-fetched derring-do and more a farce of such ridiculous proportions that anything even resembling seriousness has been well and truly ditched.
This is definitely a good thing.
With a cast of just five, only the main character, played brilliantly by Martin Pearce, remains constant throughout the play, while Elinor Hamilton sparkles as his various love interests.
The other three actors are left to cover all the remaining roles, which involves some very quick costume and character changing, often without leaving the stage, to hilarious effect.
One scene in which Barry Callander and Matt Hassall alternate rapidly between four different comedy characters on a train is particularly well done, causing the audience, once they had finished laughing, to break into spontaneous applause.
The script is filled with similar jokes - often post-modern jibes at the expense of the inadequacies of the set and props - and each is punched home with pinpoint comic timing and deadpan delivery.
The action, which ranges from London to an all-action rooftop chase on a train and a drive through the wilds of Scotland, is realised with a minimal black-painted set and a lot of imaginative directorial touches.
The story is nonsensical, but you'll be too busy laughing to worry about that anyway. You may at some point during the show need to pinch yourself as a reminder that you are, in fact, sitting in a church on Chorley Old Road and not enjoying a bizarre waking dream. With dancing. Oh yes, there's dancing.
Was there as strike today? I don't recall. All I know is that it's £7 a ticket, and it includes free refreshments in the interval. Well worth blowing your pension on, if you're lucky enough to have one.
