This slick, quick world tour will make you smile (From Salisbury Journal)

This slick, quick world tour will make you smile

10:03am Thursday 24th September 2009 in Entertainments

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, SALISBURY ARTS CENTRE, TOURING

AHEM, I defy anyone leaving a performance of the Ringwood-based professional touring theatre company’s latest production without a big smile on their face.

Based on the Jules Verne classic tale of the Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg who accepts a wager that he can travel around the world in 80 days aided and abetted by his loyal manservant, Passepartout, this production is as inventive as it is eccentric.

But, is Fogg also the man who has stolen a stash from the Bank of England, identifiable by his magnificent teeth?

Only Fix of the Yard can decide and heads off hot on the couple’s heels.

Toby Hulse’s adaptation for the stage features just three actors, who have the unenviable task of playing no less than 18 characters, including a charming Indian princess, snatched from the fires of suttee in India.

How is this all achieved?

With perfect timing and slick direction in the safe hands of Kirstie Davis whose production is the first for her as artistic director.

The pace is frenetic and with a large A-board to help the audience count down the days, blink and you might miss a trick.

Jonathan Jones is brilliant as the cool and charming Fogg, the ubiquitous Englishman through and through. His sidekick Passepartout, played with frenetic charm by Michael Magnet is a perfect foil and Michael Cole as poor Fix of the Yard is delightfully ploddish, though the actor nearly steals the show as Princess Aouda.

Michaela Kemp’s clever design transforms a gentleman’s clubroom into a range of inventive modes of transport, including an Indian elephant.

Brilliant and perfect for the village hall venues it is touring to.

Anne Morris