AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS. To 5 May.
Hornchurch
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
by Robin Kingsland based on Jules Verne’s novel
Queen’s Theatre To 5 May 2007
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 26 April, 5 May 2.30pm
Audio-described 5 May 2.30pm
BSL Signed 2 May
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 01708 443333
www.queens-theatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 April
All the world’s a stage, elephant included.
There’s a rough-and-ready, end-of-term have-a-go feel to this Verne version at the Queen’s. For no particular reason it’s set in a circus; though, of course, a circus ring’s round, and so (more or less) is the world. Also, it’s practical and economic.
Simple pieces of ringside-set or ticket-booth swiftly transform into transports of delight: a railway carriage, ocean-going steamer, or elephant. Circus costumes and make-up ease quick changes of character by the hard-working ensemble of just six.
And there’s raw, sawdust-and-spit energy to the circus which fits the theatrical up-effrontery of Bob Carlton’s production. How many of the numerous visual gags (some well-worn through frequent previous theatrical use) arise from Robin Kingsland’s script and how many from Carlton’s direction is unclear, but the script’s verbal humour is over-often lame, repeatedly relying on circus-like razzamatazz to give it energy.
Kingsland uses a useful dramatic formula; traveller Phileas Fogg’s French valet Passepartout has somehow linked himself to the circus, the watch his former master gave him providing the criterion of timing for the artistes’ work-breaks. Leaping from a hamper, Richard Brightiff’s valet proceeds to tell the assembled circus-folk the tale of his trip.
This being the Queen’s there are plenty of cues for music, whether it be a single trombone-note audibly representing an elephant, or a piccolo tooting patriotic tones at references to the British ambassador.
Several things onstage earn the show goodwill. There’s the valiant energy in meeting any challenge (onstage elephant constituted from circus props, sir? No problem) while the energetic speed-changes between characters have a neatly cheeky obviousness. As does Carlton’s willingness to go for any silliness available; Neil Boorman’s racist US Colonel moves from pugnacious redneck to cringing coward the moment his gun-barrel’s empty, crawling off in defeat.
And there’s an underlying respect for Verne’s story, which, prompted by the newly-opened trans-America rail-link, was suitably up-to-the-minute. Fogg here is an example of the traveller finding himself upon return. Paul Leonard’s clockwork heart melts (with minimal influence on his upright, grim-visaged stance), while he’s so impressed with his servant’s sermon on love he even pays the man’s 80-day gas-bill.
Nazeing/Ensemble: Neil Boorman
Passepartout/Ensemble: Richard Brightiff
Macclesfield/Fix/Ensemble: Simon Jessop
Phileas Fogg/Ensemble: Paul Leonard
Aouda/Ensemble: Natasha Moore
Keston/Ensemble: Marcus Webb
Hornchurch
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
by Robin Kingsland based on Jules Verne’s novel
Queen’s Theatre To 5 May 2007
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 26 April, 5 May 2.30pm
Audio-described 5 May 2.30pm
BSL Signed 2 May
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 01708 443333
www.queens-theatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 April
All the world’s a stage, elephant included.
Director: Bob Carlton
Designer: Rodney Ford
Lighting: Matthew Eagland
Movement: Paul Miller
2007-04-17 12:13:29