Press Release
“ The 39 steps” on stage!
An award winning play, that is one of the more recent shows to successfully run at Broadway and West End, The 39 Steps has 4 actors playing 140 roles over one and a half hours! In an absolute masterpiece of visual humor and comic timing, the play sees the entire film ’The 39 Steps’ performed nearly verbatim onstage. The film’s serious spy story is played mainly for laughs, and the script is full of allusions to other Hitchcock films, including Rear Window and Psycho. This is perhaps the ultimate spoof espionage thriller!
The play premieres in Chennai at the Sir Mutha VenkataSubbaRao Concert Hall on the 29th of October at 7:30 pm, followed by 4 more shows on the 30th and 31st October at 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm. Tickets for this play will be priced at Rs. 1500, Rs. 750, Rs. 500 and Rs. 300 and will be available for sale at all the Landmark outlets and at www.indianstage.in. For more details, call 9840444916 / 9840612333 or visit www.evam.in.
Reviews
“…light and loopy fun, it can hardly be bettered…” – Theatre Guide, London
“…theater at its finest…” – New York Times
“The most entertaining show on broadway…” – New York Post
evam is an award winning theatre entrepreneurship in the business of live entertainment shows, workshops and cultural festivals. Having done over 25 plays and 400 shows in the last 7 years, evam won the YPAE awards given by the British Council and represented India at Edinburgh. evam also won a fellowship to a Director’s program in Washington DC and was the only entertainment company in the top 10 Tata-NEN Hottest Start-ups.
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Radaan is the biggest and most successful television production house in the South, mentored and managed by cinema industry stars R. Sarathkumar and his wife Radhika Sarathkumar. Having produced more than 8000 episodes and playing on primetime for more than a decade, Radaan is a publicity magnate and one of the biggest brands to enter the field of theatre.
On 4D Trailers and Matchboxes
Evam and Radaan are proud to bring to you a 4 D trailer, created to promote the show, which will be released at Sathyam cinemas, including Escape, starting this weekend. It is a feather in the cap of a production that has seen some very interesting and quirky promotions for it. It started with the question ‘How would a trailer for a play look if a theatre group created it?’
The trailer starts off with a homage to the number of roles the actors don in the play. It sees them change into their various roles at a furious pace, to a narration, and after a flurry of action, one of the actors walks off screen. The others look around for him.. and find him in the audience! An exchange between the actor sitting in the theatre and those on screen follows, post which he exits the theatre and reenters the screen.
The 39 steps has also seen other quirky on ground promotions happen, from ‘live acts’ at restaurants, to distribution of spy documents with custom matchboxes to ‘burn after reading’, and art installations across office spaces.
An example of an act we have devised is one designed to happen in a space with a big crowd, say, a play or live event where the audience members are awaiting entry at the gates. You suddenly have a bruised looking person, a guy in bloodstained and soiled clothes who staggers into the midst of the crowd, yelling for help, and distributing handouts indicating the source of his distress. He is chased by 3 or 4 sinister agents in trenchcoats and hats. The fugitive runs up to the centre of the crowd and yells out “I finally have proof! Hitchcock CAN be hilarious! You will find out how in October! Pls help me spread the word! But oh no… they’re onto me! Help! Help!” as he is dragged off by the 3 agents who were after him.
So, whether you’ve been out for dinner and see a live act, stepped into your office and notice an art installation, go to watch a movie, and are treated to a live interactive trailer, or are at the ticket queue for another play, and suddenly found yourself at the center of much drama, remember you’ve only been part of the promotions for The 39 Steps.
The evam – Radaan association
“The 39 Steps”, in India, is a play that traces its birth to the vision of Karthik Kumar of Evam,and Sarath Kumar of Radaan to concertedly raise the bar of quality of live entertainment, and treat audiences in India to world class fare.
When Radaan decided to to enter the field of live entertainment, a partnership with Evam was only natural- Radaan known for its quality productions, and Evam, known for being a fun, entertainment company, were together, bound to create a fantastic quality of entertainment.
The partnership was the result of a chance meeting between Sarath Kumar and Karthik Kumar, where they realised they shared an identical desire to deliver world class on-stage productions on a regular basis. This production of the 39 Steps was the result of this meeting. Instead of restricting themselves to Chennai, Evam and Radaan decided to extend the scale of the production to include all of India.
Both Evam and Radaan are firmly committed to the goal of constantly improving quality. This is set be an active partnership that starts off with bringing the best of the world to India, but soon aims to showcase our quality to the world as well. An association with path breaking implications, the Evam-Radaan partnership starts off with a visual spectacle straight off Broadway. The 39 Steps is not only a rib tickling treat, but it is also the start of something much bigger, for live entertainment in India.
The 39 Steps Movie Photo Gallery
