An excerpt from the dramaturgy essay I wrote that accompanies The 39 Steps in this year’s program.
…Even among the ancient Greeks, as soon as a poet had penned a work of sublime beauty, an epic poem unmatched in its comprehension of the human condition – the comedians got to work on parodying it. Only material that is in some way at the top of its class or the definitive work of a genre deserves this treatment.
The 39 Steps spoofs Hitchcock’s classic spy-thriller because it is an iconic and ultimately successful movie. Patrick Barlow, who adapted the 1935 film into a four-actor joyride, admits, “I love the material, I’m not trying to make fun of it. It’s a pastiche, a kind of loving making-fun-of.”[1] Barlow (or rather Barlow’s alter-ego, Desmond Olivier Dingle) is the founder of Britain’s National Theatre of Brent, a company that has earned a cult following with two or three-person shows like The Charge of the Light Brigade and Wagner’s Ring Cycle. The idea for this company was itself a spoof: it originated as a satire of the giant, expensive productions (with equally giant casts) of the Royal National Theatre in London.
But spoofs are more than just a way to honor something by making fun of it. They are also a clever way for one artist to say to another, “You may do it well, but I see how you do it!” Mark Twain spoofed Thoreau, Shakespeare spoofed Marlowe, Chaucer spoofed popular medieval romances, and Alexander Pope spoofed the great epic poets. James Joyce, in what some have deemed the greatest novel ever written, Ulysses, doesn’t miss a chance to parody nearly every English literary style ever. He saw how they did it – and wanted us to know, too…
For the rest, check out our 2010 program in May.
[1] Brown, Joel. “4 Actors, 150 Roles adds up to 39 Steps.” Globe Newspaper Company. The Boston Globe, 16 Sept 2007. Web. 8 Mar 2010.
Hanna Waters and 
Logan are discussing. 
Kate Berry and 
Michael Bouchard 1:31 pm on March 29, 2010 Permalink |
7 and a HALF thank you very much.