Scripps Ranch Theatre to open its 44th season with comic murder mystery ‘The 39 Steps’

calico 10/27/2023

To say that there’s a lot of clowning around in “The 39 Steps,” a comedic play that parodies the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, is an understatement. The production features two characters identified as “clowns” who during the course of the spy spoof portray more than 90 characters.

In Scripps Ranch Theatre’s Season 44-opening show directed by Phil Johnson, actors Chris Braden and Katelyn Slater take on that prolific task. The other two members of the cast are Melanie Mino, who plays “only” three characters, and Marley Bauer, who is the story’s reluctant hero, Richard Hannay. That’s it for Bauer — one part, but he’s the constant onstage.

“My job is more as the straight man,” said Bauer, “and to let other people bring the humor in and let that roll off of me.”

Mino, meanwhile, says that not shifting between characters as quickly or as often as the “clowns” do“ makes it more imperative that I’m really segmenting my different characters. They’re very different, from dominating and sexy to docile and sweet to very proper and curious. A wig isn’t going to pull that off.”

“The 39 Steps” began as a 1915 novel by Scottish author John Buchan. Hitchcock’s film, which co-starred Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll, is considered among his best man-on-the-run thrillers. It’s the story of a Canadian man in London who gets blamed for a woman’s murder and tries to solve the crime while traveling throughout Great Britain with the police on his tail.

It’s one of the few Hitchcock movies that became a stage play, in this case one written as a comedic knockoff by Patrick Barlow. It opened on Broadway in 2008. Its pre-national tour was staged the following year at La Jolla Playhouse and it has since been staged at a couple other San Diego County theaters.

“It’s a play with very few actors, and the actors who are in it get to have a ton of fun doing it,” said Bauer. “The fun they’re having translates over to the audience as they’re watching it.”

There’s also the curiosity factor about those few actors playing so many roles and at lightning pace.

“Just hearing that you’re going to have four people play 100 characters is exciting,” said Mino. “It’s like ‘Let’s go see how they do that.’”

Bauer and Mino agree that Johnson, a gifted comic actor as well as director, is the right man to be ringmaster of this circus.

“His laughter is infectious,” said Mino. “He knows what he wants and he is so available to us. Phil loves when we have ideas. He wants us to play from day one: ‘Bring everything you’ve got. It can’t be too much.’”

Added Bauer: “He’s always got the energy that you need to put on a comedy.”

Johnson, co-founder of the Roustabouts Theatre Company, recently wound up an appearance in another comedy, Omri Shein’s “The Savoyard Murders,” in which he starred as host of a party for theater people that turns into a murder mystery. It, too, was staged at Scripps Ranch Theatre’s space on the Alliant International University campus.

Familiarity with “The 39 Steps” movie is not a prerequisite for enjoying the theatrical parody, Mino said. “Just know it’s a comedy. It’s fun. It’s farcical. Come ready to laugh.”