THERE was plenty of laughter at the Theatre Royal this week as an adaptation of John Buchan’s classic 39 Steps hit the stage.

The production, based on the novel which was most famously depicted by Hitchcock’s 1935 movie, was brought to the venue by The Northern Comedy Theatre.

It starred St Helens quartet Tom Platt, Ben Engelen, Kathryn Chambers and Harry Moore.

With plenty of rib-ticklers and farce never too far away, it also manages to tell a captivating plot revolving around the plans of a menacing spy ring.

There are strong performances from all of the local cast with ex-De La Salle pupil Platt shining as the lead Richard Hannay, a listless depressive upper class Englishman who finds himself caught up in a sinister spy plot and on the run wrongfully accused of murder.

Engelen and Moore provide plenty of comic highlights with Chambers delightful as Hannay’s love interest.

The cast portrays more than 50 characters between them, with Platt the only constant as Hannay, with the rapid shifts in character and scene adding to the helter-skelter and slightly surreal experience the play offers.

Even the production’s own cast and stage limitations are constantly parodied as part of the joke with the odd slip-up ad-libbed in appropriately comic style.

Yet among all the crazy farce, we are still moved by the story of an unlikely hero willing to save his country from a deadly plot and who finds his reason to love.

Brilliant stuff.