WHAT an absolutely ripping yarn, spiffingly performed by an energetic and literally dashing cast of four.

Were there really only four of them? It seems like a cast of thousands in this long-running, award-winning theatrical telling of John Buchan’s classic story by Patrick Barlow (from an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon for a Yorkshire touring show).

Barlow said the inspiration for his adaptation was Hitchcock’s film rather than Buchan’s novel, which he describes as not only one of the first great thrillers, but also rather staid. This is not something of which the production can be accused.

Being staid, that is. It is certainly thrilling, because despite the lack of people, scenery, and anything but talent really, the show is funny (mostly) and suspenseful (when it needs to be). The blend of laughs and thrills is masterful.

Our dashing hero Richard Hannay must keep a stiff upper pencil-moustached lip and his wits about him after a mysterious German woman is murdered in his flat after telling him in a very strange accent something about the 39 steps and a threat to world peace.

His search for the truth takes him to Scotland where, after a lot of argy-bargy with crofters and coppers, he finds himself handcuffed to a not-unattractive young lady with potentially lethal consequences, for him, her and the nation.

Much of the fun is seeing the cast conjure something out of nothing. Simple things such as flapping a coat to depict wind or shadow puppets to stage a chase across the highlands. Praise, too, for Gary Mackay and Tony Bell, who adopt a multitude of characters and accents, sometimes two or three at the same time.

Richard Ede makes the perfect British gentleman hero, pipe clenched firmly between his teeth and hilariously extricating himself from beneath the dead body of the aforementioned German lady.

Charlotte Peters matches him as the three women who make that stiff upper lip, but not his resolve to save the country, wobble.

  • Until Saturday. Box office 01904- 623568 and at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk