Theatre By The Sea, which normally wraps things up by Labor Day, is trying something different. It has extended its season by a couple of weeks, through Sept 18, and in other new wrinkle, has deviated from the familiar format of musicals with a straight play, the stage version of the vintage Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller, "The 39 Steps."

If that sounds a little heavy for a theater that specializes in lighter fare, it is not. This is a farcical take on the 1935 film, a slap-stick version that's as clever as it is hilarious.

For one thing, the dozens of characters in the play are brought to life by a cast of just four. One actor plays the show's unwitting hero, Richard Hannay, one actor plays the three women with whom he has romantic entanglements, and the two "clowns" embody all the rest, a dizzying array of good guys and bad, men and women and the occasional inanimate object.

And that makes for a quick-change tour de force. In one scene early in the show, two actors juggle something like eight characters with a flurry of changing hats.

This is the Rhode Island premiere of the show, which dates from 2005, but did not have its U.S. debut until 2007. It closed on Broadway in 2010, after an impressive run of 771 performances.

Although the plot follows the film, the show is pure theater.

The Theatre By The Sea stage is bare, stripped back to the brick walls, with just a handful of props that are rolled on an off the stage. There is no effort to seem realistic. The experience is all about the magic that comes from simple suggestion, like the chase scene atop a speeding train, where the actors tug on their jackets to make it seem like they are flapping in an imagined wind.

As people look out windows and peer though doors, we see what they are looking at come to life on the fringe of the stage or in a little balcony.

Hannay, played by New York actor Fred Rose, meets a mysterious woman at the theater who insists she come home with him. She spends the night, but ends up dead, stabbed in the back, drawing Hannay into an international spy ring that is trying to smuggle secrets out of England.

And every time Hannay points out the window at two dark and dangerous figures who are following him, the thugs emerge from the wings, leaning against a lamp post.
Hannay spends most of the play running from the spy ring, and trying to clear himself of murder charges that stem from the death of his curious guest. And in one of the more clever touches, the chase is enacted by a collection of shadow puppets, bobbing across a silhouetted landscape. The scene ends with a reference to "North by Northwest," another Hitchcock film, as two planes buzz Hannay, before crashing in flames.
There is even a silhouetted figure of Hitchcock himself, who always made a point of appearing for a fleeting moment in his films.

Actually, there are many references to Hitchcock's output, both in terms of music and images. Among the more memorable, is the quick nod to the famed shower scene from "Psycho."

Amiee Turner, the theater's producing artistic director, is helming the show, and she has kept it fast-paced with a keen sense for timing.

True, there is a lot of mugging and some corny routines, like the repeated, over-the-top pronunciation of a town in Scotland, when the player sounds like he's gagging.
But otherwise, it's a tight, seamless production. And the cast is terrific, real pros, all of them.

Rose, who comes to Matunuck with a string of Broadway credits, is wonderful as the show's hapless hero, Hannay, and Jennifer Byrne, another New Yorker, brought real comic dimension and detail to her three female roles, including the ditzy wife of the aged, portly farmer who takes Hannay in.

Brandon Roberts and Jason Parrish, both Florida-based actors, share the clown roles and prove to be masters of physical comedy, as they seamlessly take on the look, accents and body language of dozens of zany characters.

The show is funny, to be sure. But the real selling point might just be the ingenious staging and clever writing. That, and solid performances all around.

"The 39 Steps" runs through Sept. 18 at Theatre By The Sea, 364 Card's Pond Rd., Matunuck. Tickets are $34 to $44. Call (401) 782-8587, ort visit www.theatrebythesea.com.