(Above: Laurel Merz and Tony Rust have pivotal roles (many of them) in Cottage Theatre’s performance of The 39 Steps.)

By Randi Bjornstad

I have to say that The 39 Steps is one of my favorite plays ever, which is why I will be so happy to see it while it is onstage at the Cottage Theatre through Dec. 22, 2024.

This actually will be the third time that my husband (longtime news photographer Paul Carter) and I will have seen it. The first time was on Broadway (in New York City), which was probably sometime in 2009, although it has had several stints in different theaters along the Great White Way. The second time was on West Broadway (in Eugene) when Oregon Contemporary Theatre, aka OCT, did it, which if memory serves was in 2017.

So in announcing the Cottage Theatre production (not on any Broadway but on Village Drive in Cottage Grove), I’m going to throw in some of the comments I have previously made about the first two,  starting with the assertion that “if you’ve got a bare spot in your calendar” between now and Dec. 22, this would be a great way to fill it.

For a bit more background, before it became a play, The 39 Steps was a novel by Scottish author John Buchan, which morphed in 1935 into a popular movie directed by none other than Alfred Hitchcock. The story line there focused on  a series of innocent men being pursued for crimes they didn’t commit.

So while the movie had a somewhat serious note, as I noted previously, “the play does not. It’s physical comedy in the finest British tradition, and it’s simply wonderful to watch.”

Also as I mentioned before (verbatim), “the most amazing aspect of the show is that it features only four actors, but collectively they play dozens of parts in rapid succession. Their changes from one to another often happen in seconds right before the audience’s eyes, using hats, wigs, clothing thrown on and off over previous characters’ costumes even as they rush around changing the scenery, pushing beds and a doorway to and fro and even turning four trunks into an ersatz four-seater car.” Whether all those elements will be exactly the same in the Cottage Theatre’s show, I don’t know, but you get the picture, and it’s highly entertaining.

In the Cottage Theatre production, Tony Rust plays the unlikely hero, Richard Hannay, who unwittingly gets involved in all sorts of scrapes and predicaments that include but aren’t limited to encountering (and escaping) an international spy ring. Laurel Merz plays not only an ill-fated spy, Annabella, but also at least two other roles, a love interest named Pamela, and a charming but subjugated Scottish farm wife.

You begin to get the picture and the reason that there is so much character-, scene-,  and costume-changing going on because there are only four actors to do it all. In fact, there have been estimates that the four actors manage to portray somewhere between 100 and 150 roles among them, including some of them changing parts even in the same scene.

In addition to Rust and Merz, there are two other actors — for some reason identified only as clowns — another Merz family member, Charlotte, and Kari Welch.

Of course, it takes a lot of people to make this all happen. Bil Morrill directs this production — in the spirit of the show he also designed the set, and was in charge of props. Jodi Arend is stage manager, assisted by Cora Branstetter and Nikki Pagniano.

Set builders included Mark Allen, Randall Brous, David Evans, Nancy Geyer, Laura Gibson, Christopher Jarvis, Bil Morrill, Victor Pearson, Tony Rust, Tim Singer, Marisela Taylor, and Alex VonderHaar, with Lynne Schuepbach as sign painter, Chris Carter as costume designer, lighting by Trinity Riddell, lightboard operation by Olive Bennett, sound design by Jeffery Egbert, lobby decorations by Chantal Hall, Stacey Philpot, Evelyn Philpot, and Aryah Adams, and photography by Matt Emrich, Max Arnold, and Michael Johnson.

The 39 Steps at Cottage Theatre

When: Evenings at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 12-15, 19-21; matinees at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 15, 22

Where: Cottage Theatre, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove (east side of I-5 freeway)

Tickets: $15-$29, available online at cottagetheatre.org or from the box office, 541-942-8001, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Friday

Kari Welch, left, and Charlotte Merz, are part of the four-person cast of The 39 Steps that manages to portray up to 150 distinct charactters during the play.