THE 39 STEPS – 4 stars

John Buchan’s tale of derring-do is often regarded as the first adventure spy novel. Patrick Barlow’s zany, barnstorming stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 movie has proved reliably entertaining since its premiere in 2005.

Played at farce speed, Maria Aitken’s production is perfectly poised between frantic thriller and antic music hall, with the shapeshifting Safeena Ladha in three roles and Eugene McCoy and Maddy Rice quick changing their way through a multiplicity of characters while Tom Byrne’s Richard Hannay bounds from one hairsbreadth escape to another.

The judicious use of miniatures, shadow puppets and conspicuously theatrical paraphernalia – as well as references to other Hitchcock movies – doesn’t distract from the narrative, which remains faithful to the story and the combative, passionate and ultimately romantic interaction between the leading characters. Never mind The Play That Goes Wrong, this is The Pastiche That Goes Right.

THE 39 STEPS IS PLAYING AT TRAFALGAR THEATRE UNTIL SEPTEMBER 28

THE FABULIST – 3 stars

Is it an opera? Is it a play? Is it a magic cabaret? This eccentrically entertaining show is all three. Based on a short opera written by Giovanni Paisello for Catherine the Great in the latter part of the 18th Century, James P Farwell’s inventive adaptation is set in Mussolini’s Italy where two sisters work in the movie industry.

Director Cassandra (Lily De La Haye) struts around like a female Von Sternberg while arguing with her screenwriter sister Clarice (Marienella Phillips alternating with Réka Jónás) who has turned down 44 suitors. When itinerant magician or ’fabulist’ Agrofontido (Jack Holton alternating with Dan Smith) and his Sancho Panza-type pal arrives, matters get complicated – personally, theologically and scientifically.

Its wobbly charm is kept upright more or less by the superb musical quintet and the impressive singing of the hard-working cast, although it’s a bit much to require a performer to sing opera, do magic tricks and act convincingly. Still, two out of three ain’t bad.

THE FABULIST IS PLAYING AT THE CHARING CROSS THEATRE UNTIL SEPTEMBER 22