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Perhaps it gives half the cast too much credit to write that in “The 39 Steps,” four actors are responsible for playing the roles of roughly 150 characters.
Doug DeGirolamo is Richard Hannay, the central character. And Adrienne Naquin-Bolton plays three ladies with whom Hannay becomes entangled.
The remaining 146 or so characters are acted by theater veteran Seth Pontiff and stage rookie Dorian Dardar. Temperaments malleable at the drop of a hat, they split among themselves the jobs of police officers, a newspaperman, a train conductor, the wings of an airplane(!), a criminal mastermind and a husband and wife, among many more.
“It’s crazy. It’s like Monty Python mixed in with (‘Saturday Night Live’) skits. It’s just nonsense,” Pontiff said. “I take each scene as just a skit. That’s what helped me memorize everything.”
Adapted from an Alfred Hitchcock film and a 1915 spy novel, the play leans strongly on English humor as a farcical mystery tale unfolds.
Hannay spends most of the first act running from police as a suspected murderer, leaping from train cart to train cart with his jacket flapping in the wind, sprinting through fields and jumping out of windows. As indicated by the cast-to-character ratio, the two-time Tony Award-winning play has been praised for honoring the magic of theater by doing more with less. This is also true in the props and setting.
“The 39 Steps” does not have a backdrop. White wooden chests make up the aforementioned train cars and various other physical structures. These chests, as well as tables and chairs and coat racks and guns are run on and off stage between scenes. Standing with a slight crook, DeGirolamo slides an independent picture frame across his body to indicate his jumping out of a window. Imagination is beautiful.
The overriding theme of “The 39 Steps,” DeGirolamo said, only half-jokingly, is “pay your actors.”
“Support the arts, no matter what,” he said. “This isn’t a traditional show, at all. Theater can be almost anything. You can take movies, you can take obscure ideas and have an imagination and let it run wild.
For Dardar, the challenges of playing multiple roles are multi faceted. He has acting experience, on film, but “The 39 Steps” is his first live performance.
“I’m doing a lot of speaking, vocal warm-ups, just trying to stay flexible,” Dardar said. “For me, it’s just, remember how to stand. It’s also the first time I’ve had to be in the dress, and figuring out how to walk in a dress is challenging.
“The biggest (difference between on stage and on film) is just the rhythm, to keep moving forward. Usually in film you just do the same thing over and over again.”
Naquin-Bolton, returning to the stage for the first time after a two-year hiatus following the birth of her daughter, found most of her challenge in mastering British, German and Scottish accents.
“I’m not going to lie, the German and the Scottish accents, I kind of stole from the girl who was at try-outs with me,” Naquin-Bolton said. “She gave me great advice, to say my prayers in the accents.”
Although he plays only one character, DeGirolamo is not loafing, as he’s also the play’s director.
“When I first took over the play, I felt a little overwhelmed,” DeGirolamo said. “Reading the script, looking at everything that has to happen, all the scene changes, all the different characters, it becomes overwhelming. … I have read this play more times than I can count. I would go through it, meticulously, almost line by line, figuring out what has to happen here and what has to happen where.
“Then, I had to be in it, which made it even more of a challenge. But I’ve got a great crew working with me. I have to give a lot of credit to my stage managers.”
DeGirolamo is also the playhouse’s creative director. “The 39 Steps” was a good choice to open its 54th season “because it shows a lot of range,” he said.
“It really shows that we can, like Emeril, kick it up a notch. We can challenge ourselves to do more hard theater.”
“The 39 Steps” runs from Nov. 1-10 on the weekends at the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center Theater, 314 Saint Mary St., Thibodaux. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students. For more information, visit www.thibodauxplayhouse.com
Suspected killer Richard Hannay (Doug DeGirolamo) hides from police (Dorian Dardar and Seth Pontiff) in plain sight by kissing a random woman (Adrienne Naquin-Bolton) in a train compartment. Thibodaux Playhouse presents “The 39 Steps” from Nov. 1-10.
