The 39 Steps UK tour announced

The 39 Steps will tour the UK and Ireland next year to mark its 10th anniversary, showing from January through to July.

Based on John Buchan’s spy novel, The Thirty Nine Steps, and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 movie adaptation, the story tells the tale of Richard Hannay and his cat-and-mouse chase from London to the Scottish Highlands.

The play features just four actors playing over 130 characters in 100 minutes.

The cast includes Richard Ede, Olivia Greene, Andrew Hodges and Rob Witcomb. Richard Ede has starred in a number of theatre productions, including playing Tybalt in Romeo & Juliet, Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing and Horatio in Hamlet.

Previously, the show had a short run at the Tricycle Theatre in London before opening at the Criterion Theatre in September 2006, where it ran for nine years and was seen by over one million people.

In this time, the production included over 50 actors over the years. Between them, they had got through over 3,000 pairs of stockings, 530 O/S maps of Scotland, 38 pairs of handcuffs and 16 suspender belts.

The 39 Steps references many legendary scenes from Hitchcock’s 1935 thriller, including the chase on the Flying Scotsman train, the escape on the Forth Road Bridge and the controversial ‘stocking and suspenders’ scene.

West End Teaser Trailer from 2009

The play will open at Northampton Royal Theatre on Thursday 7th January, and will end its run at Newcastle Theatre Royal on Saturday 2nd July.

For tickets and more information visit www.love39steps.com.