By Matthew Criswell

A play based off the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock thriller, “The 39 Steps,” has been produced by the Good Company Players in the Tower District.

The play was adapted in 2005 by Patrick Barlow and turned into a comedy. The play follows Richard Hannay, a simple Englishman who is trying to stop a group of spies from starting a war.

There are only six actors in the play: James Sherrill, a Fresno State alumnus, plays the main character, Richard Hannay. Emily Pessano, plays three characters, Annabella, Margaret and Pamela. Two others, Tyler Branco and Billy Anderson play everyone else.

This creates a very humorous atmosphere to the play, calling for the actors to make lightning fast changes and even a change of accent or gender.

Sherrill said that this is a very exciting and fun play to work on because of the small cast.

“I love small cast plays because you get to bond better and there is more time to play,” Sherri said. “I couldn’t ask for a better situation, I have probably the best cast ever.”

The humor does not stop at quick character changes. There are also many contemporary references throughout the play including a train passing through the city of Downton Abbey and one of the characters being sad about Leonardo DeCaprio still not winning an Academy Award.

Throughout the play the characters break the fourth wall by talking to the audience and address things that other characters are doing.

Many other Hitchcock movies are also referenced throughout the play, like a man having “Vertigo” on top of a train, or a woman being attacked by “The Birds” in the hallway of a Scottish hotel.

Branco, who plays a constable, a newspaper boy, a female hotel clerk, and an angry Scottish man, states that it is sometimes difficult to switch between characters so abruptly.

“Getting everything memorized was very difficult for this show,” Branco said. “But now that we are up and running it is a little easier. I cannot do anything out of sequence, it must be in order.”

Branco has been in 13 plays with the Good Company Players and he believes this specific play is one of his favorites because of the cast and crew’s professionalism.

The director of the play Denise Graziani has been the general manager at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theatre since 1978 and has directed more than two-dozen plays in her career but “The 39 Steps” is one of her all-time favorites.

“It is one of my favorites but it is quite a challenge, moving the six people around, but working with this cast and crew has been wonderful,” Graziani said.

Since its opening weekend on Feb. 27, the turnout has been very good, Graziani said.

“It has been very good, we have a lot of season ticket holders who come at the beginning, and we get regular customers in and out as well,” Graziani said.

The play runs for seven more weeks at the 2nd Space Theatre in the Tower District. There are showing every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night as well as a Sunday matinee.­ The final show is on April 19th.