Contrast in drama for Keswick

Published: 10 May 2015
Reporter: David Upton

Richard Earl (L) and Patrick Bridgman (R) play the policemen in rehearsals for The 39 Steps Credit: Steve Barber
Emily Tucker (L) and Ben Ingles (R) in rehearsals for Suddenly Last Summer Credit: Steve Barber

Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake opens its 2015 summer season with two very different plays.

The centenary of the publication of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps is marked with a stage adaptation that owes rather more to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film than to the novel.

Although 139 characters tell the play’s story of the thrilling pursuit of dashing hero Richard Hannay from London to misty Perthshire, all parts are played by just four actors.

In the Studio, the remaining actors from the 12-strong summer company present a Tennessee Williams double bill. Mister Paradise—a short two-hander—precedes Suddenly Last Summer, Williams’s masterpiece from 1958.

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