Live Evaluation of 39 Steps
Evaluation of a live performance:
The performance I went to see was "The 39 Steps" on the 25th of March, at the Criterion Theatre in London, it's produced by Gaumont British.
The original 39 steps was an action spy novel written by John Buchan in 1915. Then Alfred Hitchcock produced a film, then the play was written and when I first saw the play it was a bit of a shock seeing as the book and film are set as thrillers and the play is very much a comedy.
The play is set in 1914 and Europe is on the brink of war. The main protagonist Richard Hannay is bored with life, until he runs into a mysterious German woman names Annabella Schmidt at the theatre. Richard then takes the woman home with him and she reveals that she is tracking down a man who is taking British aeroplane plans out of the country, Richard then falls asleep and wakes up to find her dead then continues her plan in order to clear his name of her murder. The rest of the play is his version of events.
The piece was extremely clever how they only used four actors during the entire show. This brings me onto costumes. The costumes in this production were very bare and essential for quick changes while on stage, and this gave the play a comic feel because they changed on the stage in front of the audience. Many times the costume was a plain suit and the actors played different characters by simplistically putting so a hat, coat or a prop. I enjoyed this because it helped me associate different characters with the little bit of costume they had.
The sound and music in The 39 Steps was used effectively to help bring action scenes to life with background news and sometimes radio broadcasts, this helped the audience to understand what is going on due to the plain props (which I will get to later)
The lighting in this play was very rarely used, the main uses where for blackouts and just full stage lighting. The biggest exemption to this was during some action scenes which involved planes for instance
The performance I went to see was "The 39 Steps" on the 25th of March, at the Criterion Theatre in London, it's produced by Gaumont British.
The original 39 steps was an action spy novel written by John Buchan in 1915. Then Alfred Hitchcock produced a film, then the play was written and when I first saw the play it was a bit of a shock seeing as the book and film are set as thrillers and the play is very much a comedy.
The play is set in 1914 and Europe is on the brink of war. The main protagonist Richard Hannay is bored with life, until he runs into a mysterious German woman names Annabella Schmidt at the theatre. Richard then takes the woman home with him and she reveals that she is tracking down a man who is taking British aeroplane plans out of the country, Richard then falls asleep and wakes up to find her dead then continues her plan in order to clear his name of her murder. The rest of the play is his version of events.
The piece was extremely clever how they only used four actors during the entire show. This brings me onto costumes. The costumes in this production were very bare and essential for quick changes while on stage, and this gave the play a comic feel because they changed on the stage in front of the audience. Many times the costume was a plain suit and the actors played different characters by simplistically putting so a hat, coat or a prop. I enjoyed this because it helped me associate different characters with the little bit of costume they had.
The sound and music in The 39 Steps was used effectively to help bring action scenes to life with background news and sometimes radio broadcasts, this helped the audience to understand what is going on due to the plain props (which I will get to later)
The lighting in this play was very rarely used, the main uses where for blackouts and just full stage lighting. The biggest exemption to this was during some action scenes which involved planes for instance