The award-winning Furness Youth Theatres is bringing The 39 Steps to Barrow Town Hall later this month.
Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre.
The show is packed with over 150 characters, an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, and some good old-fashioned romance.
Follow in the stumbling footsteps of hapless hero Richard Hannay as he becomes entangled in the web of the mysterious Annabella Schmidt, falls for the vivacious Pamela, and does battle with the dastardly Professor Jordan.
After a series of award-winning hit productions – The Turn of the Screw and Other Tales of Unease, The Wind in the Willows, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Beauty and the Beast, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Furness Youth Theatre’s latest offering continues the company’s commitment to showcasing many of the area’s best young actors.
Opal Wheeler plays Richard Hannay. Opal’s previous roles with FYT include Mole in The Wind in the Willows, for which she won the Association of Community Theatre award for Most Accomplished Character Actress.
Maddy Backhouse plays Pamela. Maddy’s previous roles with FYT include Mary Shelley in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for which for which she won the Association of Community Theatre award for Most Accomplished Character Actress; Beauty in Beauty and the Beast and Bonnie in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, for both of which she was nominated for the Association of Community Theatre award for Most Accomplished Actress.
Joseph Cunningham plays Professor Jordan. Joseph’s previous roles with FYT include the Monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, for which he was nominated for the Association of Community Theatre award for Most Accomplished Actor, and Toad in The Wind in the Willows.
Emily Ward, in her first major role for FYT, plays Annabella Schmidt.
Director Chris Loveless trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His productions have played in London’s West End, the regions, New York, and France, with several named critics’ choice by Time Out and the Evening Standard, and he has been nominated for the Off West End Award for Best Director. Locally, Chris has directed many productions for Furness Youth Theatre and its predecessor ACT Youth Theatre.
The 39 Steps will be on stage at Barrow Town Hall on May 12 and May 13. Tickets are available from www.theforumbarrow.co.uk
