PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
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.
GEORGE FOGARTY is dazzled by a breathtakingly skillful puppet version of Shakespeare’s greatest love poem
PETER MASON applauds a stage version of Le Carre’s novel that questions what ordinary people have to gain from high-level governmental spying
JAN WOLF enjoys a British revival of the 1972 come of age farce/panto Pippin
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship


