Monday, November 7th 2024
For Immediate Release
Hilarious Hitchcock – The 39 Steps
The hits continue as TheatreOne is thrilled to bring the outrageously fun play, The 39 Steps, to the Malaspina Theatre December 5th through 7th.
Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel and add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (played by a ridiculously talented cast of four), an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, a missing finger, and some good old-fashioned romance!
The 39 Steps comes to the Malaspina Theatre with performances on Thursday, December 5th at 7:30 pm (Pay What You Feel – this performance only), Friday, December 6th at 7:30pm, and Saturday, December 7th at 2:00pm. Reserved seat tickets can be purchased online through TheatreOne.ca, over the phone by calling 250-754-7587 (Monday to Friday – noon to 5 pm,) or at the door (limited to seating availability).
The 39 Steps is generously sponsored and supported by the City of Nanaimo, Island Savings, Budget Glass, Miller Real Estate Team, Norm’s Plumbing, CHLY, the BC Live Performance Network, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the Nanaimo News Bulletin. TheatreOne acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.
TheatreOne acknowledges and thanks the Snuneymuxw First Nation, on whose traditional territory we live, create, and perform.
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Contact:
Michael Cade – Artistic and Managing Director
250-754-7587 michael@theatreone.ca
About TheatreOne
TheatreOne has been bringing professional theatre to Nanaimo and the mid-Island for 40 years. We engage diverse local audiences of all ages and persuasions, including the very young, and in doing so support theatre professionals and local businesses. We work with playwrights from British Columbia and across Canada to foster development of new Canadian works; we premier new productions; and through our support to touring artists, we give Nanaimo audiences access to great theatre developed elsewhere.
About First Impressions Theatre
In 1982, Michael and Eileen Smith, Neil Boucher and Warde Ashlie sat down with Eric Rosen and made plans to produce a student play … that was it. The four who were old enough to sign documents and had an old Econoline van, along with Eric Rosen started First Impressions Theatre. It became a registered non-profit society February 3, 1983. After ten years of performing in various venues all over the north shore and Burnaby the company moved into the Deep Cove Cultural Centre where they have been operating since March of 1992.
Artistic Director, Claude A. Giroux, came along in 2017 and immediately started attracting a high caliber of talent, and with growth in mind introduced touring productions to a wider audience beginning with Forever Plaid in 2020 and subsequent touring productions of Ring of Fire, Always Patsy Cline (which toured Alberta and BC). Last season we produced an Ovation award winning production of Songs For Nobodies which along with The 39 Steps will proudly be a part of the TheatreOne season!
About The 39 Steps – The Classic Movie
The 39 Steps is a 1935 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. It is loosely based on the 1915 novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan It concerns a Canadian civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organization of spies, called “The 39 Steps”, from stealing British military secrets. Mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive woman, Pamela, while hoping to stop the spy ring and clear his name.
Since its initial release, the film has been widely acknowledged as a classic. Filmmaker and actor Orson Welles referred to it as a “masterpiece.” Screenwriter Robert Towne remarked, “It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps.”
About The 39 Steps – The Play
The 39 Steps is a parody play adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept and production of a four-actor version of the story was written by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon and premiered in 1996. Patrick Barlow rewrote this adaptation in 2005.
The play’s concept calls for the entirety of the 1935 adventure film The 39 Steps to be performed with a cast of only four. One actor plays the hero, Richard Hannay; an actress (or sometimes actor) plays the three women with whom Hannay has romantic entanglements; and two other actors play every other character in the show, each occasionally playing multiple characters at once. Thus, the film’s serious spy story is given a comedic twist.