Jared Overstreet | Banner Alexis Safoyan, freshman public relations major, and Andrew Cochran, senior theatre major, are cuffed together and must escape police impersonators that are after the two in the play “The 39 Steps.”
Alexis Safoyan, freshman public relations major, becomes aggravated with Andrew Cochran, senior theatre major, as the two struggle to go about their night cuffed together.
The highly anticipated play “The 39 Steps” opened Feb. 19 and is running until Feb. 27 in the Wallace Theatre at California Baptist University.
The cast and crew have been working to produce this collaborative remake of an Alfred Hitchcock film with Monty Python comedic elements.
Giving the film “39 Steps” a creative and comedic spin has the cast excited to perform this new production.
Andrew Cochran, senior theatre major portraying the antagonist Richard Hannay, said this production is one that hits on comedic elements to enhance thematic ones, something he said he is excited to see come to life.
“The last show I was in, ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ was a heavy show with lots of themes,” Cochran said. “I loved it, and I loved the depth to it, but not every show has to be deep.”
Differing from most productions in CBU’s theater history, the cast has been able to implement new and exciting tactics to make this production a comedic tale that audiences will love.
“This play is a very broad comedy, and I have not performed in a comedy yet,” Cochran said. “I’ve done comedic scenes and there are parts of plays that have been funny but this is the first pure comedy.”
Alexis Safoyan, freshman public relations major and lead actress portraying Cochran’s opposite, Pamela, expressed the intricate process this play went through in order to convey a complicated, yet exciting, plot.
“This production is really complicated and clever,” Safoyan said. “This show breaks the fourth wall on occasion and depicts the action of the actors playing the characters, which creates such an entertaining dynamic.”
As the cast has fine-tuned the workings of this new presentation, Safoyan expressed the hope that the audience will embrace an old tale with a quirky spin.
“I hope that the audience learns to love classic stories,” Safoyan said. “Our version of the original story of ‘The 39 Steps’ is satirical, but I hope that our production will get people excited about classic stories. Hopefully people will be able to laugh along with us and take in live art.”
