Much Hadham Drama Group staging The 39 Steps from May 15 to 17

Much Hadham Drama Group is staging a fast-paced whodunit that mixes an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel and a dash of Monty Python.

The company is bringing the two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning play The 39 Steps to the Much Hadham Village Hall stage, with performances at 7.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 15 to 17.

The play, by Patrick Barlow, is adapted from the 1935 Hitchcock film, which was itself adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan.

It is packed with non-stop laughs, more than 150 characters and includes an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance.

The cast features Olly Robinson as Lead Man, Vanessa Povey is Arabella, Lauren O’Neill plays Margaret and Amy Prosser takes on the roles of Pamela and others.

Ian Russell, Jill Oxborrow and Amanda Green play the clowns while Alison Faulkner is the professor. Overseeing proceedings is director Will Jamieson.

Tickets, priced £12, can be bought online at www.ticketsource.co.uk/much-hadham-drama-group or by calling 01279 842742.