Curtain call for Eunice Players 44th Season, 'The 39 Steps'

Today marks the final curtain-call for the 44th season of The Eunice Player’s Theatre.
The troupe will produce its last scheduled performance of Alfred Hitchock’s “The 39 Steps”– which is an espionage thriller based on the 1935 film of the same name.
The Eunice Players, however, perform the piece as a comedic romp and thriller sure to keep audience members, older and young alike, transfixed.
It is by way of The Eunice Players’ sense of humor that an audience member can come to approach a locally produced stage play with a sense of wonder. It was almost like watching a performance at The Globe Theater, complete with archaic special effects that still rouse audience members.
Debi L. Crawford, director of the play, incorporates set changes and costume changes into the live performance with such great humor and precision that Shakespeare would have been impressed.
Crawford even drops notable references to other Hitchcock films – which are slipped into the play. Cleverly, “The 39 Steps” as performed by Eunice Players, invokes “North By Northwest”, “Rear Window” and the theme music from “Psycho”.
The acting is so well done in the play that when a cap-gun is fired on stage – which coupled with powerful, vocal delivery leading up to the staged gunshot – it may cause an audience member to shriek or jolt with excitement.
The limited number of cast and crew often find themselves, literally, wearing many different hats as Bonnie Pitre, Gabe Ortego, Van Reed and Kevin Miller take on multiple roles in the Eunice theatrical version of Hitchcock’s film.
Bradley Credeur does a “right smashing” good job as he has his hands full with the lead character Richard Hannay – who is Hitchcock’s archetype of the innocent man on the run.
The final performance of “The 39 Steps” begins as 7 p.m. in downtown Eunice. Tickets can be purchased at the box office.