AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS is a much loved novel by Jules Verne from 1873 in which Phileas Fogg, a methodical, emotionally stunted adventurer, bets a fortune that he can travel the circumference of the globe in under 80 days. He's joined by a bumbling servant, Passepartout, pursued by a detective who believes him to be a bank robber and along the way he meets his future bride, Aouda, when he rescues her from sacrifice in the Indian jungle. The chemistry between the protagonists, the race against the clock and the scrapes and escapes, which come thick and fast, all contribute to its enduring popularity.There was a hit film in the 1960s starring David Niven, an unsuccessful remake starting Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan in the 1990s. Cole Porter, no less, adapted it into a spectacular Broadway flop and I wrote a musical of the story which continues to be performed internationally and which I've directed five different productions of over the years.
The epic locations and set pieces: an elephant ride, that jungle rescue, railway trains, steam ships etc. are all best staged by encouraging the audience’s imagination to conjure these things up in their head whilst the cast suggest them with simple props. Nearly every production I've ever encountered stages it with a few suitcases and step ladders and this excellent production is no exception to the convention, suggesting everything very adeptly with ropes and trapdoors on a bare stage.
Success also depends, not on spectacular recreations of each stop on the characters physical journey but letting the audience in on the emotional journey of the characters as their relationships ebb and flow. In this regard this new version is also very successful.
It's particularly difficult to breathe life into the Indian Princess as Jules Verne doesn't let her speak in his original novel despite the fact that she develops from helpless damsel in distress to our hero’s life partner. The chemistry between Robert Portal’s humourless Phileas Fogg and Shanaya Rafaat’s Aouda is just right, she is tolerant and understanding but no push over, just what he needs.
The story, when told effectively, is also something of a bromance and Portal also has a great on-stage relationship with the Charlie Chaplin like Simon Gregor. The kids in the audience loved all his slapstick and crazy outbursts. He is the ultimate naughty child to his bosses’ severe head master. Tony Gardner is terrific as Fix of Scotland yard whose bewildered infuriation at the crazy adventure mirrors our own, even as we will our friends to succeed.
There’s a delicious steam punk aesthetic to Lucy Bailey’s production and Anna Fleischie’s design which covers a pit full of exciting looking contraptions with a simple, pagoda-like structure that seems to fit, chameleon like, with everywhere the story takes us.
There were quite a lot of fluffed lines at the second press night I saw, none of which were as funny as the actors assumed and the physical theatre techniques, adeptly movement directed by Lizzie Gee, are all pretty standard stuff which regular theatre goers will have seen many times before; but it all adds up to a very agreeable two hours entertainment which I defy anyone not to enjoy.
The perfect festive theatre treat for families who can’t face pantomime and a great way to get kids to use they’re imaginations.
Older audiences and critics were rather underwhelmed by this massive new show, inspired by the classic children’s book ALICE IN WONDERLAND, when it premièred in Manchester earlier this year. It has now transferred to London's Oliver Theatre and if the enthusiasm of the younger audience members at the late preview I attended is anything to go by, it could prove a massive hit if it can reach the urban teenage audience it’s aimed at.