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Long before James Bond's implausible antics shook the imagination, another debonair English spy stirred the literary and film world. With its new production of The Thirty-Nine Steps, the Auckland Theatre Company pays tongue-in-cheek homage to Richard Hannay, the Edwardian gentleman spy at the centre of an international conspiracy.
The star of novelist and statesman John Buchan's 1915 book (and four subsequent novels), Hannay has been reincarnated in three film versions, including Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 thriller, a television adaptation and an English stage play.
Ross Gumbley, artistic director of Christchurch's Court Theatre, penned his own light-hearted version of The Thirty-Nine Steps two years ago. He has come to Auckland to direct Mike Edwards, Lisa Chappell, Stephen Papps and Cameron Rhodes playing 139 characters with stunts like driving trains and cars, sailing a dreadnought, piloting a 4m balloon and flying a biplane.
Gumbley's journey with The Thirty-Nine Steps started late in 2005 when he read Buchan's book, described by the author as an adventure thriller or "shocker" because the story flirts with the incredible. Around the same time, Gumbley read a newspaper article about plans to screen airline passengers based on their special meal requests.
"It had the ring of, 'If you order the vegetarian falafel option then you might be a Middle Eastern terrorist so we should take another look at you'," he says.
Buchan's book and the news story, two seemingly disparate items, got Gumbley thinking about the nature of paranoia, conspiracy theories and surveillance societies.
"I could see clear parallels between Britain before World War I, where everyone was convinced for years before that some form of large-scale conflict was imminent, and the type of ever-vigilant and increasingly paranoid world that we live in.
"Buchan's book was part of an 'invasion genre' but when I reread it, it seemed very contemporary to me."
The author of nine plays, including six co-written with Alison Quigan, Gumbley had never before adapted an existing book for the stage but he was keen to try. He saw the perfect opportunity with The Thirty-Nine Steps but sought licence to amuse rather than simply to thrill.
"In my DNA, I write comedies, so it was never going to be a dark and heavy thriller. Besides, most grand conspiracy theories always seem so large and far-fetched as to seem comic to me."
Thus began the process of taking a story from the page to the stage where the hero travels from London to Scotland and rambles all over the highland countryside pursued by bad guys in trains, planes and cars.
Like other adaptations, Gumbley's veers well away from Buchan's original story, introducing female characters and protagonists - women are barely mentioned in the book - and amplifying the intrigue to suit audiences with more sophisticated expectations of a thriller, even one with strong comic elements.
He sought to retain the book's car and plane chase sequences, saying he had always wanted to choreograph an on-stage car chase.
"We create an illusion, and a lot of the fun comes from inviting the audience to suspend their disbelief. I never wanted to turn the characters into mere caricatures but for them to be played straight. The humour comes from the actors taking it so seriously."
Not surprisingly, critics described the Court's production as having a Boy's Own adventure feel. Gumbley promises more of the same in Auckland. "You always look back and think, 'We could have done this better or changed that to see how it worked', so it is fantastic to have the opportunity to revisit it. Apart from Stephen [Papps], the cast is different so I can tailor the material to suit the new actors - which is one of the benefits of being the director and the writer, I suppose."
Papps played Hannay in the Court production; this time the job goes to Mike Edwards, whose matinee idol looks make him a perfect choice for an all-action hero with the gift of the gab and a knack for eluding double-crossing secret agents.
Because he's on stage pretty much the entire time, Edwards plays only Hannay, meaning his three co-stars juggle a multitude of other roles. Cameron Rhodes, a theatre veteran with more than 20 years' experience, says it is the fastest-paced show he has ever worked on.
"I need all the experience I've had to manage this. I honestly don't think I could have done this five years ago, but it's a lot of fun and very humorous. It's the kind of show actors want to do because it is such a challenge. We want to have the audience on the edge of their seats."
Performance
What: The Thirty-Nine Steps
Where and when: Maidment Theatre, Feb 12-Mar 7
