WHEN YOU think of a show, you’d think of the standard musical or play, right? That’s what I thought too, and I know me and many others were confused at the thought of watching a live radio show.

However, knowing many of the cast members and learning that every night had sold out, I was pretty excited to watch The 39 Steps. It wasn’t until after I was seated and I saw the cast come out did I really get excited. I was not disappointed.

The 39 Steps: A Live Radio Play was an amazing show. You could see the effort our advanced theatre put into this show, it really shown through their performance..

The 39 Steps: A Live Radio Play is a show set in 1930s London, following Richard Hannay as he tries to prove himself innocent after the murder of Annabella Smith. With a cast of 29 amazing actors and actresses, this radio show comes to life in an amazing display.

For one, they did a fantastic job portraying the setting. All cast members were decked out in their 1930s outfits and tweaked their voices into various British dialects. This made it much easier to get into the story.

One of my favorite things about this show was their sound effects. It was all done by the cast members, who used shoes, a tire, doors, live music, people in both the show and the audience, symbols, and much more for sound effects. It was so unique and interesting being able to watch the people as they spoke and to hear these things in the background. I absolutely loved how they went about doing this.

It made the show more interesting, unique, fun, and it showed that you don’t need to see all of it to truly see it.

Nevertheless, despite how much I loved the use of the sound effects, it got a bit confusing at times. It wasn’t often, but in the beginning I was confused about how things worked. Later in the story when they were supposedly on the train, the amount of sounds used and everything that was going on got jumbled up in my mind and I got just a bit lost. Those things aside, I seriously can’t complain because this was one amazing show done by a bunch of amazing actors.

Another great thing about this show was the humor. Considering it was a radio show, they had points in which the people producing the show came and sang little jingles or portrayed people in various ads, which was super funny and added lots more to the show. There was also some acting done by the makers of the radio show, before the show started. Just watching them walk around, chatting and discussing, was really interesting!

The actual plot of the show was done very well, and the actors really brought out these characters well and the show as a whole fantastic.

I am a total sucker for a good character, and this show was packed full of them. There were many different characters in this show, some of whom add mystery, humor, sass, drama, and so much more! Some characters were mysterious and plotting, others innocent, some funny, some sassy, and some so extremely sarcastic it hurt. Their portrayal of these different characters made the show heaps better.

I was also impressed by the foreshadowing! Looking at the actual writing of the show, it was done extremely well. In the beginning, there are many things that I didn’t think much about. I figured these people were simply there to move on the plot, or to add to the story; little did I know, they were way more important than I originally thought.

I was on the edge of my seat quite a bit of the time, desperate to know the truth behind the mystery the story posed.

Through foreshadowing, funny encounters, amazing sound effects, plot, characters, effort, and everything else put into this show, it turned out to be absolutely amazing, and I actually wish I could see it again.

This was such a fantastic show and here’s a big thanks to the advanced theatre for producing, creating, and devoting so much of their time to putting such an entertaining thing together. Overall, I give it a rating of 9.7/10.