39 Steps to zany mystery

Let’s keep this as straightforward as possible, shall we?

Go see The 39 Steps at Magnus Theatre.

Actually, “see” likely isn’t the word Alfred Hitchcock would use, given his mastery of suspense and precisely what one doesn’t see. Here, though, it’s quite obvious that for some innocents fateful spy-dom truly is the only destiny.

The only? No, you silly, there are these 39 steps you see. All you have to do is follow the blueprint. A map? Yes, I have it. Where? Here, at Magnus Theatre. Yes. I told you.

I can’no go there. Where? Magnus Theatre. Why not? I can’t. I have piercing blue eyes, you see, and my attractive pencil-thin mustache would be unmistakable on the front page of the London Times. You do see that, don’t you?

Richard Hannay, a.k.a. Martin Sims the actor, remarkably doesn’t bat an eye, one of those piercing blue ones, as he makes his precarious way across the moors of Scotland. Aye, it’s a tricky place!

Alison Deon, in all her versions of the femme fatale, is delightful. Darkly maudlin as Annabelle Schmidt, back as Margaret she’s sweet and fresh like the cream from newly-milked Highland coos (that’s cows).We’ll meet again, she sighs, and we just know it’s true as soon as Pamela appears.

The other two and 20 or 40 or so characters have us clapping our hands in glee and wiping tears of laughter from the corners of our eyes, blue or not. Biggest kudos to Mark Crawford and Alex McCooeye: these two dexterous and dangerously talented “side kicks” are anything but in this production.

Think of them more as the muse behind Monty Python, Mr. Bean, Peter Sellers and the Pink Panther, Kids in the Hall, and the Muppets all rolled into one; or in their case, two. Their natural chemistry and marvelously choreographed antics had this reviewer wondering just how many lifetimes ago they started rehearsing together. Maybe Mister Mystery would know; let’s ask him, shall we?

Kudos also to the entire behind-the-scenes crew: Mervi Agombar with her costumes; set and lighting designers Ed Kotanen and Graham Ockley; stage managers Gillian Jones and her apprentice Laura Grandfield, and of course artistic director Mario Crudo.

The praise for these folks is not off-handed; rather, it’s front and centre. Such a fast-paced spoof as this, with its requisite for razor-sharp timing and all things exaggerated – movements, gestures, sounds, spotlights – together with the cleverest use of crates and ladders and projection screen imaginable, has all the oomph an unsuspecting audience could wish for. Of course the fog of London and the mist from the moors of Scotland were specially imported; weren’t they?  

As we began, your assignment here is straightforward and silliest simple: go see The 39 Steps at Magnus Theatre.

You have until Dec. 17 to catch a spy, so to speak.