ROWNTREE Players are to stage Patrick Barlow's award-winning adaptation of John Buchan's The 39 Steps at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from March 5 to 7.

Directed by Gemma McDonald, this fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre mixes an Alfred Hitchcock cinema classic with a juicy spy novel, than adds a dash of Monty Python-style humour to its tale of betrayal, death and love, replete with more than 150 characters played by a cast of only four.

In The 39 Steps, a man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick accent who reveals she's a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organisation called The 39 Steps is hot on the man's trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale.

An on-stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance all feature in a feast of physical comedy, mental dexterity and inventive stagecraft performed by Mark McDonald as "the man", Richard Hannay, and Sara Howlett as "the woman", Annabella Schmidt, and two more women, Margaret and Pamela.

Teej Jackson as Clown 1 and Katie Brown as Clown 2 take on every other role between them in a show that ticks the boxes marked farce, comedy, adventure, mystery and thriller.

Tickets for the 7.30pm performances cost £12, concessions £10, on 07927 026 071, at rowntreeplayers.co.uk or via email sent to tickets@rowntreeplayers.co.uk