The 39 Steps, York Theatre Royal

9:53am Thursday 27th March 2008

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I SAY chaps, this is a spiffing production of John Buchans spy novel, crossing the book with Alfred Hitchcocks film to make something unique.

Then getting just three chaps and a gal to play all 139 roles in an action-packed 100 minutes is sheer genius in Patrick Barlows adaptation and Maria Aitkens direction.

David Michaels, the perfect handsome hero with his pencil moustache and gung-ho spirit, is a man on the run after a woman is stabbed in his flat.

The adventure to prove his innocence sees him on the run in Scotland C via a daring escape from a train on the Forth Bridge (well, two ladders with a plank resting between them).

The plot doesnt so much thicken as curdle with a face-toface confrontation with the man with the missing little finger, various Highland folk and woman who insists on removing her stockings while handcuffed to Hannay.

The miraculous thing is that this version of The 39 Steps, which owes more to Hitchcock than Buchan perhaps, is both thrilling and funny as the chase takes Hannay to see Mr Memory on stage at the London Palladium.

The spoof element is affectionate and not overplayed, while the inventive visual and verbal jokes are extremely amusing.

Michaels plays it straight down the line as Hannay, with pipe clenched between his teeth, a jaw that couldnt be squarer and Clare Swinburne by his side as an assortment of femme fatales.

Colin Mace and Alan Perrin play everyone else to hilarious effect, never less so than when impersonating three or four characters in the same scene.

ö Until Saturday. Tickets 01904- 623568. Then Newcastle Theatre Royal, April 7-12. Tickets 08448- 112121