The West End’s long-running show, The 39 Steps, is set to visit Bath as part of a new UK-wide tour marking the Olivier Award-Winning Comedy’s 10th anniversary. Based on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 movie and John Buchan’s 1914 spy thriller The Thirty Nine Steps, the hit stage production will appear at the Theatre Royal from Monday 8 to Saturday 13 February.

The 39 Steps follows dashing hero Richard Hannay - complete with stiff upper lip, British gung-ho and pencil moustache - in a dangerous tale of cat-and-mouse from London to the Scottish Highlands. Adapted for the stage by Patrick Barlow, this wonderfully inventive and gripping comedy thriller sees four actors play over 130 characters in 100 minutes. The cast for this 10th anniversary production are Richard Ede as the hero Hannay, Olivia Greene as the three women in Hannay’s life, Pamela, Annabella and Margaret, with a myriad of other roles played with breath-taking speed and dexterity by Andrew Hodges and Rob Witcomb.

John Buchan’s The Thirty Nine Steps was famously adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock in what is widely regarded as one of the best films from his early period. The stage production references a number of the legendary scenes from this 1935 classic movie thriller of the same name, including the chase on the Flying Scotsman train, the escape on the Forth Road Bridge and the controversial ‘stocking and suspenders’ scene.

After a short run at London’s Tricycle Theatre, Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of The 39 Steps transferred to the West End in 2006, running at the Criterion Theatre for 9 years, where it won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and was seen by over one million people. The show attracted worldwide attention and spawned international productions in over 40 countries, including the cities of Moscow, Tokyo, New York and Paris, reaching a global audience in excess of three million. In 2008, The 39 Steps was produced on Broadway where it was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and was joint-winner of the Drama Desk Award. It also won a Molière Award for Best Comedy in France, and a Helpmann Award for Best Comedy in Australia.

Visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk for tickets and more details.