Review of Around the World in 80 Days at Bolton Octagon.
Continuous squiggly lines adorn Bolton Octagon’s walls and floors, drawing the eye ever deeper into the building. All routes lead to the auditorium where the irregular twists and curves continue – splashing across the walls, forming dangling neon clouds overhead and weaving across the centre of the stage.
Our destination is the starting point for an altogether more ambitious journey, sparked by a bet that Lady Phileas Fogg can travel around the world in just 80 days.
Kate Ferguson and Susannah Pearse, who have form with the Octagon’s festive shows (last year’s A Christmas Carol and 2019’s Treasure Island), return with their latest lively musical adaptation – and this time, they have Jules Verne in their sights.
Updating the action of Verne’s classic novel by half a century, their new version of Around the World in 80 Days packs its bags and dusts off its passport in 1923 – allowing the writing team to broaden the range of travelling companions and refresh the historical context.
Polly Lister’s Lady Phileas Fogg is recovering from the loss of both her son in the First World War and her husband to influenza. A chance discussion with newspaper proprietor Sir John Sullivan, over the potential for an English man to beat the existing world record for globe-trotting of 90 days, turns into a £50,000 bet over whether she can do it in 10 days less.
Sullivan’s disdain at the thought of a woman achieving such a feat is clear (“calm down ladies you’ve already got the vote!”).
Ferguson and Pearse’s adaptation doesn’t hang around – after a bit of musical to and fro-ing between Phileas and her butler Passepartout about planning the route, the benefits of hand luggage and the appropriateness of trousers for the feminine form, it’s bon voyage, and off they go…
They are not alone in their desire for adventure. Along the way, they will also meet an enthusiastic female balloonist, an archaeologist off to join Sir Howard Carter’s digs at the Egyptian tombs, and Amit Khatri, a keen journalist.
Khatri is actually travelling undercover, calling himself Augustus Fix. Sent by Sir John Sullivan, he has been tasked with providing unflattering newspaper stories and thwarting Phileas’s progress.
Squeezing 80 days, and countless destinations, into just over two hours is no small feat. The enthusiasm and high energy that the six-strong cast bring to the journey, as well as their ability to inhabit over thirty characters along the way, powers the production. Susannah Pearse’s light and breezy music and lyrics help to seamlessly drive the quickly unfolding story forward (“let us allez, off to Calais”).
A delightfully playful quality permeates the production, helped by Katie Scott’s ingenious and resourceful set and costume design. Place names appear from the floor of the stage as if flipped out of a board game, and numbered golf flags are planted within it as the days tick on.
Luggage is repurposed as seating, a tangle of ropes drops from the ceiling as characters take to the air, and huge strips of fabric float over a busy city street. Magic is made from the simplest of things – an elephant unexpectedly assembled from everyday objects gets a well-deserved round of applause.
Scott has fun with limited means. The tourist sights of Italy flash by as tiny cut-outs on sticks. We know Augustus Fix has been incarcerated, not because of the meagre row of fake-looking prison bars, but because he’s wearing a cheerful sign proclaiming ‘IN JAIL’.
It’s a show that often feels plucked from a big dressing-up box, a testament to the power of make-believe. With its daft voices, silly walks, comedy chases and ridiculous moustaches, it’s obviously not taking itself too seriously. A singalong encourages the audience to “do one thing you always do, but do it in a way that’s new”, while the performers dance in their pyjamas.
Look closer and there is a lovely attention to detail. Passepartout’s outfit neatly incorporates the red, wide and blue of his native France’s tricolore – while the illuminated train tracks embedded within the stage pulsate with the colours of the national flags of the countries they are journeying through.
Rather than double-entendres for the grown-ups, this festive show treats them as adults, with a sprinkling of knowing references. There’s an archaeologist off to bring the treasures of Egypt ‘back’ to the British Museum, “where they belong” – and even a nod to the politics (then and now) of Italy, where Phileas notes the Tower of Pisa is “not alone in leaning to the right”.
Thoughtfully, while the show heads towards a Christmas Day conclusion, it makes sure to find time to celebrate Diwali and Hanukkah along the way.
Back at the beginning, Lady Phileas looks confined within the trappings of her formal attire – weighed down by her heavy coat and squashed beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Those outer garments are gradually cast aside en route, with even her skirts whipped off and waved overhead to attract a passing balloonist. Attired finally in waistcoat, bright magenta trousers and boots – she steps out with confidence to face her next challenge.
Polly Lister ensures Phileas’s joy at seeing the world for the first time, her wide-eyed enthusiasm, is infectious. Yet she also deftly hints at the inner sorrow she carries, and her vulnerability – so keen to find purpose, so willing to trust. Hers is a journey of many layers.
Similarly, Darren Kuppan’s Khatri discovers much about himself, as his efforts to stop Phileas winning the bet begin to leave an increasingly sour taste. Kuppan shines throughout – showing perfectly-timed, skilfully-executed comedy skills, as well as bringing tender complexity to his conflicted journalist.
Fun, feelgood and designed to charm – this Around the World in 80 Days revels in its adventures, and unpacks the power of friendship.
Performance seen on 21 November 2023.
Images by Pamela Raith.
Circles & Stalls 