THE 39 Steps is returning to York Theatre Royal’s main house after five years, bringing it home to Yorkshire soil where the play first took root.

That story has been told many times before: how Simon Corble and North Country Theatre artistic director Nobby Dimon came up with the original concept; how Patrick Barlow, the National Theatre of Brent founder and master of maximum theatre with minimum numbers, then adapted it for West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

How it has since taken up residence in the West End and played all over the world, 25 countries in total, among them Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland, Spain, South Africa, South America and Turkey.

How it also has run on Broadway and toured North America and won a bagful of awards, including an Olivier and Whatonstage.com for Best Comedy; two Tony Awards for Best Lighting and Best Sound Design; two Drama Desk Awards for Unique Theatrical Experience and Outstanding Lighting; and the Molière award for Best Comedy.

Barlow’s show is into its sixth year at the Criterion Theatre in its latest West End production and now producers Fiery Angel and Tricycle London Productions, in association with the West Yorkshire Playhouse, are mounting its 2013 tour, which began in Cambridge on January 19 and will run until the end of July.

Leading the fast-moving, fearless cast of four is Richard Ede as Richard Hannay, handsome hero of John Buchan’s 1914 spy thriller, The Thirty Nine Steps, that spawned Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film The 39 Steps, which in turn spawned this play and its frantic attempts to re-create Hitchcock’s thriller.

Ede, Charlotte Peters, Gary Mackay and Tony Bell must play 139 roles in 100 minutes in a comedy thriller replete with stiff upper lip, British gung-ho and Hannay’s inscrutable pencil-slim moustache as he encounters dastardly murders, double-crossing secret agents devastatingly beautiful women.

Richard Ede has hit the ground running for Maria Aitken’s touring production after three months as understudy for Hannay at the Criterion. “I went on for about a month, when sometimes you can wait and never get on in months,” he says. “Luckily I chose a good time of year: the season of winter sniffs and colds.

“As an understudy, you can sit and watch how the show’s done, so it was a great chance for me to road-test it.”

Since being on the road, Richard has noted one difference from being in the West End show. “What we’ve noticed is the different senses of humour in different towns,” he says.

“But we’ve also seen how the differing age groups will take different things from the show: the romantic element and the slapstick will be appreciated by the younger audience members and all the Hitchcock references will be enjoyed by the older audience.”

Richard had jumped at the chance to audition for the Hannay role, then had second thoughts when he watched Hannay’s stunts – Fiery Angel’s custom is to provide those auditioning for Hannay with a ticket to see it first – but having thought “maybe not”, he decided, “I really want to do this!”.

Has he felt pressure, stepping into Hannay’s shoes? “There is pressure there to do a good show because it has such status now, but our job is made so much easier by everyone in the technical team, and the way Patrick [Barlow] envisaged it with the four actors doing everything, we’d have to do something particularly bad for it to go wrong!

“We may be sitting on the shoulders of giants – but if we’re enjoying it, then so will the audience.”

The frenetic show is keeping Richard fit. “I don’t need to go to the gym,” he says. “I’ve lost half a stone already and developed good biceps.”

Keeping The 39 Steps match fit is important too. Patrick Barlow, in a previous interview with The Press about the art of performing his play, stressed it was important not to send everything up, and Richard concurs with that advice.

“I think the good thing about this production is that we’ve tried to play it on two levels,” he says. “There’s this straight level, Hannay’s journey as a hero, but at the same time you have four actors striving to re-create Hitchcock’s film perfectly and that’s where the humour arises from: trying to do that when there’s the inevitable risk of collapse that we can’t do it.”

Richard is delighted to report that Patrick already has given his seal of approval to the new touring show, while Richard’s freshly cultivated pencil-slim moustache has been drawing exactly the response from the public in the street he craved.

“You get that look of people thinking, ‘Gosh, is he sporting that by choice?’! I’ve spent hours trimming my moustache. It’s a labour of love.

“But I’m very much used to growing facial hair – I’m 38 now and I’ve done a lot of Shakespeare with lots of beards, so thankfully I’ve had lots of practice.”

As Richard settles into The 39 Steps for the tour, he sums up the show’s appeal. “I think it’s the fact it has something for everyone,” he says. “I know that sounds a cliché but that’s the truth. It has the romance of Hannay and Pamela that grows out of being tied up together; it has all that excitement of re-creating the film. If you want romantic adventure, it’s there; if you want action; it’s there; if you want comedy, it’s there.

“It has nostalgia too, with the old-fashioned BBC, rather metallic, rather clipped accent that really takes you back to the period. It’s the first James Bond – and Hannay never takes his tie off. He’s still absolutely dapper, even when he throws himself off the Forth Bridge, so we hold on to that image of the suit-clad hero with the stiff upper lip.”

• John Buchan’s The 39 Steps runs breathlessly at York Theatre Royal from March 26 to 30; 7.30pm plus 2pm, Thursday and 2.30pm, next Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk