UNTIL now, the two supporting players in Patrick Barlow's stage adaptation of The 39 Steps have always been Man 1 and Man 2.

Not anymore, thanks to Stephen Joseph Theatre artistic director Paul Robinson, who has cast Laura Kirman as Woman, in her Scarborough debut alongside fellow Mischief Theatre performer Niall Ransome's Man.

Barlow's fast-moving marriage of John Buchan's book and Alfred Hitchcock's film requires Kirman and Ransome to play around 130 roles between in this glorious spoof of the much-loved whodunit, with its re-enactment of the chase on the Flying Scotsman, the escape from the Forth Bridge, the first ever theatrical bi-plane crash and a death-defying (well nearly) finale.

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Niall Ransome as Man and Laura Kirman as Woman in The 39 Steps. Picture: Sam Taylor

"It's a joy, we're having such fun doing this play," says Laura. "The material is wonderful and it's a delight to be working with Niall again. We each have 14 costume changes and we're playing so many characters that, with some of them, blink and you'll miss them!"

As with her appearances in Mischief Theatre's The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Laura draws on her physical theatre skills in The 39 Steps. "I studied at Rose Bruford [College of Theatre and Performance], where our movement teacher had trained at Jacques Lecoq's in Paris, so we had a whole term of clown work, and since graduating I've done mainly comic work, especially with Mischief director Mark Bell," she says.

"Working with Mark, you build on those skills, and what's remarkable with clowning is that there's so much chaos going on, you really have to know where you're going!"

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Gripping moment: Laura Kirman in The 39 Steps. Picture: Sam Taylor 

Laura is enjoying performing with Niall Ransome once more and especially their challenge of performing myriad roles. "The fact that no woman has ever done my part before brings a completely different dynamic between the two 'clowns'. What Paul [Robinson] has done brilliantly is choose which characters I should play, and there's then been a dialogue between us about which ones should be played as male and which ones as female, though you can't go against the comic style," she says.

Look out for Laura in such roles as the Milkman and the Sheriff. "You start in rehearsals by learning like a dancer, building it up step by step, and the important thing for us to do is not to go chasing the gags but to remember that, first and foremost, we're telling the story," she says.

"Because it's written so brilliantly by Patrick Barlow, the rhythms of the comedy are clear and once you've run the play in rehearsals, it's in your body, it lifts off the page and you really invest in it.

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"The important thing for us to do is not to go chasing the gags," says Laura Kirman, front right. Picture: Sam Taylor

"Paul [Robinson] was so wonderful to work with in the rehearsals. The room was so joyous and creative, with Paul saying 'let's explore, let's play'. You need to go big and bold in rehearsal and not fear you're going to be judged, and Paul ran a very open room."

The 39 Steps is being performed in an in-the-round configuration for the first time, bringing the audience closer to Barlow's frantic thriller. "There's such a buzz about it," says Laura, who will head off to Theatr Clwyd, Wales, with the SJT production from September 11 to 23, once the Scarborough run ends on August 23.

The 39 Steps can be seen in the SJT's summer rep season tonight, tomorrow, August 17, 21 and 22 at 7.30pm; August 18 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm and August 23 at 1.30pm and 7pm. Tickets are on sale on 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.