The first thing that needs to be said about this show is that it's probably the best piece of theatre I've seen for a while. It is a high energy, physical farce jam-packed with hilarious moments, sprinkled with meta and guaranteed to leave you feeling satisfied when leaving the theatre.
Phileas Fogg (Robert Pickavance) makes a wager he can race around the world in just 80 days with the help of his manservant, Passepartout (Joe Alessi). Fix of The Yard (Darren Kuppan) is a detective hot on the trail of a bank robber that has perfect teeth and fits the description of Fogg. However there is a twist to the usual story, in fact, we’re watching a play about the play we’re watching with an interruption from the playwright himself, Jules Verne (Dan Parr), who gets involved when the cast don’t follow his text as closely as he would like and decides to 'help out'. It definitely added something unique to the already fantastic play, especially with a good balance of metatheatre thrown in too which made me feel included in the show and hooked all the way through.
The show is performed by four flawless actors who multi-role throughout the show. However, to me two of the actors stood out in particular. Alessi, Passepartout, has a fantastic scene in particular that requires him to swap outfits repeatedly to play two different characters in an incredibly short window which caused us as the audience to laugh out loud. This, for me, was one of the best moments in the show. Kuppan, Fix of The Yard, showed fantastic physical theatre throughout with his incredibly comical belly-dives around the stage. With the amount of energy that was bursting out of these characters I wouldn't have been surprised if the actors hadn't have been collapsing by the end of the show, they were phenomenal. However, I do also have to give a quick mention to the lady responsible for helping the actors with their quick changes and handling the many props that were used. What a great job she did! I'm so glad she came out for a well deserved bow at the end.
Throughout the show the stage gets constantly transformed with swift/slick changes by the actors into various transportation and places in the world with just the use of two huge platforms, some planks of wood as well as a slide transforming into an elephant! Time is shown by the actors picking up various small props such as newspapers, signs, life rings that are positioned around the stage and have how many days have passed written on the bottom. This was visually pleasing as an audience member and I thoroughly enjoyed this. The costumes were also extremely visually pleasing, they had a 'steam punk' feel to them and worked really well with the theme of the show.
In all I would absolutely recommend seeing this show if you get the chance. It's incredibly fast-paced, full of life and guaranteed to give you some belly laughs.
Reviewer - Bethany Suthers
on - 9/4/19
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