The 39 Steps is an escapist diversion that expresses contemporary anxieties while also providing hope for the fulfillment of fantasies and positive outcomes. The novel from which the play and Alfred Hitchcock’s film is adapted is inspired by author John Buchan’s definition of a romantic adventure as one that “affects the mind with a sense of wonder–surprises of life, beauty, and courage flowering in unlikely places.” 

Set in 1935, the play is staged against the backdrop of the collective anxieties fueled by events such as the global Great Depression, the rise of Nazi Germany, Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, and the first race riots in Harlem. One is invited to make connections between the events and sentiments of 1935 and the present-day: economic uncertainty, invasion and war, and systemic oppression. The play also provides viewers with the seemingly timeless need for respite and escape in moments of great despair.

In the accompanying exhibition of photographs by multi-disciplinary artist JenMarie Landig, dark forces, at the individual and compositional level, are similarly investigated. Just as the play’s characters adopt various roles, often in order to deceive others, Landig's photographs consider the masks we wear and the vulnerabilities concealed beneath. The masks we wear often reveal crucial insights about the wearer; likewise, fantasies can be a window into one's true self, even more so than the reality one outwardly lives. Landig’s images transition into wonder and courage to suggest that significant meaning is made when we attend to the content of our fantasies and cultivation of one’s dreams and imagination.