Theater reviews: One play has no shortage of antics, another no paucity of ambition

This past weekend offered two shows that are expertly performed, skillfully designed and directed with a terrific sense of what their ensembles are capable of. They also offered something of a “three bears” dilemma, without (for this theatergoer) a “just right” solution.

Downtown, the Denver Center Theatre Company was making them laugh with the antics of Patrick Barlow’s parody play “The 39 Steps,” based on a 1915 novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 spy thriller. In Lakewood, Benchmark Theatre was challenging its audience with “A Great Wilderness.” The drama is the work of Samuel D. Hunter, author of “The Whale” (and its big-screen adaptation), which won Brendan Fraser a Best Actor Oscar in March.

Quick-change pleasures

Marco Alberto Robinson, Amelia Pedlow, Henry Walter Greenberg and Nate Miller are quick-change artists. For the demands of “The 39 Steps” — directed by Meredith McDonough — they must be. All told, the four play more than 50 characters in this espionage caper that finds Englishman Richard Hannay (Robinson) bored no more.

A night at the theater proves thrilling when shots are fired during a Mr. Memory act. Greenberg and Miller play the recall savant and his aide (as well as nearly every other character but for the hero and females). The mystery woman Hannay shares the loge with asks to come home with him. (Yes, there will be flirtatious winks and nudges throughout the comedy.)

In short order, Annabella Schmidt (Pedlow) is knifed. But not before an “I’m not dead yet” demise leaves time for her to mention the traitorous spy organization of the play’s title and the whereabouts of its headquarters in Scotland. Accused of the woman’s murder, Hannay must evade police, find the spy ring set to steal British military secrets and prove his innocence.

Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” is often cited as the masterful forerunner to movies about protagonists having to go on the lam and prove their innocence. And run, run, run Hannay does — like a marathon man, like a bespoke-suited Cary Grant in “North by Northwest.”

In a piece of ingenious stagecraft, Hitchcock movie’s famous scene of Grant trying to elude a crop duster while running through a desiccated corn field is re-created, shadow-box style. The shadow box proves more than once to be a splendid and amusing theatrical device for moments that would have relied on cinematic special effects. And in the spirit of this zany undertaking, other Hitchcock classics get their nods.

Along the way, Hannay makes the acquaintance of two other women: a stranger on a train and the wife of a farmer. (The wife of the spymaster and the ringleader himself are portrayed by Greenberg and Miller.) Will either woman believe him enough to keep him safe from the police?

Describing the plot of “The 39 Steps” is a little like giving away the secrets in a three-card monte game. How the play returns Hannay back to a theater is a nifty trick. And what turns out to be so very elegant here is in the way the spoof resolves its mysteries after such a terrifically silly ride.

It is the same solution Hitchcock employed — and then again not.

Into the woods

My own bias will always default to the brooding over the resolutely silly. So, the ambitions of Benchmark’s beautifully acted   “A Great Wilderness” — under Marc Stith’s direction — appeal. Even if the characters in Hunter’s play, about a man who has spent his life trying to help young gay teens convert to heterosexuality, aren’t exactly a joy to spend time with.

Walt (Chris Kendall) is packing up to leave the cabin in the Idaho woods where he has received teenagers who he attempts to “cure” of homosexuality for decades. As “A Great Wilderness” opens, he’s agreed to move to an assisted living facility. He’s also agreed to take on more clients.