REVIEW: IRT’s season opener ‘The 39 Steps’ is delightfully absurd

“The 39 Steps” is onstage at the Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT), and it’s the funniest thing I’ve seen all year. 

The IRT’s 2025-26 season opener truly captivated audiences during opening night on Friday. Directed by Benjamin Hanna, the IRT’s Margot Lacey Eccles Artistic Director, “The 39 Steps” has been reimagined for its return to the IRT stage Sept. 16-Oct. 12. 

The four-actor chaotic adventure is staged as a delightfully hilarious and dramatic parody play adapted from the 1936 Afred Hitchcock film which was adapted by the book by John Buchan.  

This show is hilarious, no exaggeration. I laughed so hard my lungs hurt, and not from the poor air quality that’s descended upon Indianapolis as we endure ‘false fall.’ 

However, I’m obligated to be honest. I have never seen a single Alfred Hitchcock movie so “The 39 Steps” was an entirely new concept to me. It was funny and thrilling, fast-paced and amusing. At no point did I have a solid understanding of what was going on, but I enjoyed every single second of it. 

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Usually, it’s hard to like a play you don’t understand, but “The 39 Steps” is the exception for me. Everything was done so well, that I kind of didn’t even care that it didn’t make sense — which I’ve since been told was kind of the point, but nevertheless, let’s get into it. 

In co-production with Syracuse Stage in New York, the cast of “The 39 Steps” features Jürgen Hooper as Richard Hanney, Tyler Meredith as Annabella Schmidt, Margaret and Pamela; Ema Zivkovic as Clown #1 and Michael Stewart Allen as Clown #2. 

“The 39 Steps” follows Hanney, a notorious English fugitive (Hooper) and a spellbound blonde (Meredith) traveling north by northwest from London to Scotland to try to save Britain from a den of spies. Along the way, Hanney encounters plot twists, painful irony, murder accusations, kidnap and about a dozen people (Zivkovic and Allen x40) out to get him. 

Honestly, I don’t think I can accurately describe what exactly happens throughout “The 39 Steps” — because the answer is “a lot” but also because the show itself is a bit insane. While Hooper plays only one character, everyone else onstage scrambles between more than 40 different characters in a ridiculous spy-adjacent parody. 

It had me on the edge of my seat, literally, trying to keep up with murder, framing, blackmail and, like,15 different hats. 

Playing one character really well is impressive. Hooper’s Richard Hanney gave brilliant, stressed and stubbornly confident. I wanted to root for him. Playing three characters is even more commendable. Meredith was captivating every time she took the stage in a new wig and dress. 

I lost track of how many characters we were introduced to — complete with costumes, wigs, props and different accents — through Zivkovic and Allen. Entertaining isn’t a strong enough word to describe what their joint performance felt like in real time. 

The IRT first did “The 39 Steps” back in 2011. Unfortunately, I didn’t see that production, because I was 10 and living in Ohio, but I’m told some of the original scenic designs by Linda Buchanan made a reappearance for this production. I’ll admit, I was already interested before the proverbial curtain even rose. I was not expecting to see a dimly-lit theatre backstage with as the backdrop to a Hitchcock classic. Less is more, and this show has so much to give audiences — from the cabin trunk train to the ladder airplane and fence that didn’t really keep anything in or out.  

As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of hats in “The 39 Steps,” but there were also a lot of wigs and costumes too — more than you’d think necessary, and yet each of them comes together as more and more characters are introduced through what seems more like a wild-goose chase than a mission.  

Linda Pisano did costume design, and I just fell in love with the way some of these costumes moved through fight scenes, acted as props and even overcompensated for the storytelling. 

I’m still amazed by the sheer amount of quick changes, including those that happened onstage, and the way humor was so tastefully woven into the blatant absurdity of it all.  

I really love what the IRT did with lighting and sound design for “The 39 Steps.” I know I don’t mention that often, and I’m sorry. Truth is, many cool things happen on and offstage through the use of lighting alone. “The 39 Steps” incorporates dramatic death scenes, flashbacks, a train chase, plane crashes and a party through strobe lights, fog, haze, sound effects, music and well-timed cues. 

It’s just the magic of theatre, all thanks to Xiangfu Xiao and Uptownworks, but the IRT always makes it look so sexy. 

If you’d like to spend a night at the theatre laughing and enjoying yourself as Indianapolis starts to welcome fall, I highly recommend visiting the IRT for “The 39 Steps.” I brought a friend and we giggled about it all the way back to the parking garage. 

“The 39 Steps is approximately one hour and 45 minutes with one 15-minute intermission. Tickets start at $27. 

The show includes quite a few content warnings, but stick with me. It’s recommended for 6th graders and up due to mild profanity, physical innuendo and references to sexual situations; knives, guns and gunshots, depictions of a plane crash, violence and death — played up for comedy; antiquated language about race, religion and gender in pre-WWII Europe. 

 For more information, visit irtlive.com. 

Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.