Hitchcock meets Python in White Rock Players spoof
Published 6:00 pm Friday, June 26, 2026
Rest in peace, Lord Tweedsmuir.
The former Governor General of Canada, more widely known under his writing pseudonym of John Buchan, might not recognize his original 1915 novel in the latest White Rock Players Club production, The 39 Steps (July 2 to 19, Oceana PARC Playhouse, 1532 Johnston Rd.).
That’s because Patrick Barlow’s tongue-in-cheek 2005 ‘adaptation’ owes more to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film (and the savagely funny satire and silliness of Monty Python’s Flying Circus) than it does anything the Scots author and politician wrote.
Pitched as “a fast-paced comedy-thriller packed with espionage, romance, intrigue and nonstop action,” it actually relies on a single audacious gimmick.
What if you took a property – unproduceable on the stage in any conventional sense – and did the whole thing with minimal set elements and just four actors playing (gasp) more than 140 characters?
This ‘doubling-down-on-doubling’ approach, which has since taken root like ragweed on the theatrical landscape, will be familiar to anyone who has seen White Rock Players Club’s 2019 Dracula, The Bloody Truth, and 2022’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, not to mention 2025’s The Woman In Black. But, never mind, here it comes again.
All prejudices aside, The 39 Steps, while it might not please all of those who love the Alfred Hitchcock version (itself an intentionally witty take-off on the typical espionage thriller of the ’30s), can succeed in being funny, and breathtakingly impressive – in the right hands.
This writer has seen the show turn into a brilliant demonstration of theatrical legerdemain in the hands of players with a command of mime and physical comedy.
I’ve also, sadly, seen it land as both leaden and tiresome, with the doubling coming across not so much a matter of skill as a wild and frenetic scrambling for the cheapest of laughs.
Fortunately, director Miles Lavkulich (who helmed the recent Lend Me A Soprano for the Players Club) has chosen an appealing cast of fresh faces for this current production.
The cast is headed by authentically British Kay Knighting, seen to good advantage as Sir John Middleton in this season’s Sense and Sensibility, as archetypal stiff-upper-lip hero Richard Hannay.
Framed for murder by a gang of international (read Nazi) spies, Hannay’s on the run from the police, and the spies, across much of England and Scotland – all the while he desperately seeks evidence to prove his innocence.
Lauren Fisher is triple cast as Pamela, Hannay’s antogonist turned romantic interest; as Anna Schmidt, the heavily accented femme fatale who precipitates the turmoil; and as Margaret, a kind-hearted crofter’s wife, who helps the fugitive.
In the demanding roles of Clown 1 and Clown 2 – who are tasked with playing absolutely everybody and everything else – are Amanda Gallacher and Abigail Walkner.
“The cast has embraced the show’s breakneck pace, physical comedy, and endless character changes with incredible energy that has us giggling at every rehearsal,” reports Peter Godman who co-produces with Scott Kristjanson.
“Audiences are in for a wildly entertaining evening.”
The 39 Steps runs Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with a 2:30 p.m. matinee on Sundays.
Except for the July 2 preview ($20), tickets are $29 for adults, $25 for seniors (60-plus) and youth (under 18). Call the box office at 604-536-7535 or visit whiterockplayers.ca