The 39 Steps is a theater adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie. There was a production of it in the Theater Center Forum.
Director: Marcus Strahl
Writer: Patrick Barlow
Based on: Alfred Hitchcock‘s movie, written by Charles Bennett and Ian Hay and which was in turn based on John Buchan‘s novel
Cast: Paul König, Leila Strahl, Martin Gesslbauer, Natascha Shalaby

Plot:
Richard Hannay (Paul König) is frustrated and depressed with his life. But then he meets a mysterious woman (Leila Strahl) at a theater who is obviously in some kind of trouble and who invites herself back to his place. Before Richard can really wrap his head around the goings-on, the woman is stabbed in his apartment, drops a mysterious hint and Richard finds himself on the way to Scotland, trying to figure out what exactly the 39 Steps are.

I was lucky enough to get free tickets for two different things in one week. I would have gladly spent money on the ballet thing. For this play, I was really happy that I didn’t have to.

I have neither read the novel, nor seen the film, but from what I’ve gathered both are straight-up spy thrillers. For the play decided to go full-on comedy, having all the actors playing multiple parts and having a bit of fun with the sets. And sometimes that works pretty well, but mostly it just got really silly.

Plus, it didn’t help that Leila Strahl, no matter what role she was in, was always sexy – and nothing more. The script really fucked each and every role up to make it one hell of a sexist mess.

I did enjoy the first half, but the second half dragged and dragged and in the end nothing made sense. [I wonder if the book and movie make more sense, plotwise.]

Summarising: it’s not playing anymore in Vienna. No big loss.