Around The World in 80 Days

There’s no doubt in my mind that once this production settles in, and the actors relax, this will become a much funnier show; as it stands, it’s a pleasant, if overly long, homage that doesn’t realise its full potential, and that’s a pity.

In the tradition of the marvellous The 39 Steps (which again requires great vision to make it funny) and The Complete Works of Shakespeare in 90 minutes, this turns on its head Jules Verne’s story of an English Gentleman suspected of robbery who makes a wager to go around the world in eighty days, and all that he encounters on the way.

What made the book and the subsequent film so exciting was the spectacle - in the former to let your imagination run riot, and in the latter to lay out the entire world before the viewer in filmic actuality.

Presenting the show on stage throws up its own problems, since it’s caught between two worlds. There’s no spectacle, but not enough imagination.

The fault mainly lies with Toby Hulse’s script. He is primarily a writer for theatre in education. He writes for children, and it shows. It’s not by coincidence that those laughing loudest were the children in the audience, who shrieked at every joke no matter how many times it was repeated.  It’s great to see a family friendly show, but there isn’t enough to engage adults for two hours plus. The film played it straight, allowing the spectacle to do the work, but when you have just three actors – well, the cast size determines the style.

The beauty of a “pisstake” show like this, is the license to go all out with the physical comedy – to be outrageous and know that it is totally acceptable. This production hasn’t found its feet yet. It’s too tentative by far. The choices are to play it straight, and hope that a great and hilarious script carries the day, or to go completely slapstick and make it an elongated Music Hall sketch (I’m not sure anyone throwing that phrase around knows what it actually means, and certainly Hulse doesn’t).

Now Music Hall is all about the “business” (I was brought up in a family of Music Hall performers) rather than the script - and there simply isn’t enough business.

Slapstick got its name from a prop which was just that - a stick with a hinged end used to make a sound offstage when one person slapped another (a la Three Stooges and very politically incorrect now) – gradually it encompassed custard pies and all other aspects of physical comedy - what you heard might not be funny, but what you saw certainly was.

If you look at One Man, Two Guvnors there’s very little comedy on the page – it’s all in the business, the direction, and it’s hilarious. Terrence O’Connell has a great track record in musical, but this isn’t a musical, so lots of research is needed into the ‘shtick’ of early 20^th century Music Hall - leave the characters as they are, but ramp up the business, the illusion of things going wrong (of even starting a scene again because someone has ‘dried  - all rehearsed), of two characters saying the same line…and then…in unison “wait a minute, that’s my line…no it’s not its my line” …all that stuff is Music Hall, all tried and true, all belly laugh stuff no matter how many times we’ve heard it.

The cast – playing about 20 characters between them (not thousands as the flyer suggests) is excellent. Ian Stenlake is largely stuck in the Phileas Fogg role and could afford to go much further with his send up - remember Tony Curtis in The Great Race, he had a little flash of light come from his teeth when he smiled. I’m sure the clever lighting director Jason Bovaird could rig something similar. But Stenlake understands what’s needed - you can tell by the way he stands and moves; he just needs more freedom; more physical shtick to work with; more over the top presence. He is stunning figure - he just needs to be more aware of it.

Pia Miranda is delightful, but again could afford to go bigger. The Alex is a small theatre, and she was barely heard. Grant Piro is terrific, with a natural sense of dry comic timing. He’s played this style before in The 39 Steps, so he is totally comfortable with it. Lucy Wilkins’ costumes are on point and Merinda Backway’s set is impressive, but it would be even better if, like a Swiss Army pocket knife, more things pulled out of it to point to the comedy. Bovaird’s lighting is excellent and only surpassed by Dave Ellis’ brilliant soundscape, so integral to the whole production.

There is a terrific show in here if all involved just let imagination run riot. It doesn’t have to be contained for a school production, it can take wings and fly….like the hot air balloon gag which is laboured for so long (I can’t help thinking how much some Victorian style slides would have helped, especially if they had been of the wrong city at the wrong time….more comedy opportunities missed).

And that’s the major issue - no-one has fully tapped the comedy potential so far.

There isn’t any reason why this couldn’t have all the joyous impact of other shows in the genre. And it could be done in far less than 80 days.

Coral Drouyn

Photographer: James Terry.