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Theatre: 39 steps to the funny bone

The 39 Steps
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds/Touring
4/5

FIRST staged 20 years ago, this touring adaptation by Patrick Barlow of John Buchan’s 39 Steps — by way of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 comic thriller — finds plenty to to parody in adventure hero Richard Hannay and his “very attractive pencil moustache.”

Having become embroiled in a WWI spy plot he’s chased across Scotland, encountering love interests and dastardly would-be murderers.

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