The 39 Steps Review

Overall Rating

Leaving at the end. Truly, apart from one single, minor, chuckle neither my wife nor I were even tempted to snigger during the entire performance. Many around us were almost wetting themselves with laughter, much of it genuine (but also I fear much of it fake and self-referential from people who are fake and self-important), but this merely left us bewildered.

The entire show - I want that hour and half of my life back please. I might have enjoyed this as a teenager in the 19080s but since then I've grown up and humour has progressed enormously. The humour was banal, obvious, forced, and, mostly, absent.

I really wanted to enjoy this show. I liked the idea of it, it came highly recommended by others, and the tickets were a present. Just like 'Guest' below we wanted to leave at the interval, but felt duty bound to stay because it was a gift. I guess this just shows how much of an individual thing taste is as we certainly seemed to be in a minority, but perhaps this is just one of those shows that polarises people. And in case you're thinking we're just humourless losers, I'd like to point out that the previous show we saw at the Oxford Playhouse was the Christmas pantomime Aladdin, which had both of us, and our children literally crying with laughter - and that of course also features slapstick humour, cross-dressing, silly voices, and obvious jokes. I've tried very hard to understand what The 39 Steps does wrong, and I can't put my finger on it, and actually I can't be bothered.

So caveat emptor!