Review: Around the World in 80 Days, Theatre By The Lake, Keswick

A charming, all-age and fantastical journey

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, adapted by Laura Eason, Theatre by the Lake

By Ken Powell

Keswick’s Theatre by The Lake (TBTL) has kicked off its 2023 in-house productions with a beautiful and delightfully funny charmer. We might be going back in time to the days of Victorian gentlemen, when trains and steamers were the transport of choice, but it felt like we’d gone forward eight months to Christmas time. This production is exactly the kind of delight TBTL gives its audiences every December.

Considering how miserable our spring has been so far, this was actually rather welcome. No heavy melodrama or deep and meaningful tragedy here to send us all off in a funk. This is pure nostalgic fun. Make no mistake though: Around the World isn’t slapstick and it is no panto – so it isn’t just for children. The adults in the room loved it just as much as the young ones. Indeed, many of us gave a standing ovation at the end. It was that good.

As an interesting aside, audiences might be a little intrigued where ‘the balloon’ comes into the story. Despite the image in the TBTL poster and, probably, all our memories of the story, there is no actual balloon in Verne’s original tale. Such is the power of TV and movies, I suspect.

Balloon or no balloon, how do you produce an adaptation of a story – about the strait-laced Phileas Fogg and his ridiculous wager – that has been done to death and one that, centred firmly on the ‘positives’ of the British colonial empire, hasn’t necessarily aged well. Well, you give it the TBTL twist that regular audiences have come to expect. While they stick pretty firmly to the plot of the original novel, the team have done a great deal to create a story which won’t jar with modern values. This is as fresh as Fogg’s first day of adventure.

Partly this is achieved by the choice of actors, with implied role-reversing over who is master and who is the servant. Stefan Adegbola, playing Fogg, does a wonderful job of keeping a straight face and being wholly believable as the mathematically precise and socially unaware gentleman. Miriam O’Brien, giving us a female Passepartout, does an excellent job with the French accent and is lovely and comical in equal measure. Purvi Parmar and Niall Ransome however, playing multiple roles, often steal the limelight in the moments of comedy. These two supporting cast members absolutely earn their keep with this production.

That they can do so is, in part, because of the brilliant work behind the scenes or in advance. Movement Director, Jess Williams, has done a superb job choreographing multiple scenes depicting journeying or activity. Within minutes of the play starting, the audience had given a thunderous round of applause precisely because of this. It was a cracking opening.

Likewise, the puppetry – by Naomi Oppenheim – although used minimally, was rather wonderful. In particular, the elephant (despite six legs!) was really rather wonderfully constructed and, dare I say it, quite believable. I will say, however, that I hope TBTL have got their invisible wires well tied. I won’t give anything away other than to say I could see Fogg plummeting to his doom (sort of, anyway) right at the end of the production if anything gives way – much to, I guess, unintended guffaws from the audience. I’m pretty certain that the team at TBTL will make sure that doesn’t happen. Still, I watched with trepidation.

I went on the press night only a few shows into the production and not everything is finely honed yet. The sound quality dropped for the opening of the second half and it seemed to take a while for the actors to find their voice and their energy. Comic timing was slightly off too. But these are teething issues which I’m confident the eight-strong group will develop and strengthen quickly as time goes on. It was only a momentary lull and before long we were crying with laughter again, loving every moment of the adventure.

As I write, it is tipping with rain and rather chilly. We’re not yet into the season of getting the kids out of the house and enjoying the great outdoors. You might not normally consider taking them off to the theatre at this time of the year. I recommend you think again. Let them ‘see the world’ through the eyes of Fogg and his companions and enjoy a bit of magic in Keswick this term break. You’ve only got until the end of the month and then you will quite literally have ‘missed the boat’. To see if Fogg does (and if that pesky balloon makes an appearance), you’ll have to buy a ticket and find out.

Around the World in 80 Days is showing at Theatre by the Lake’s Main House until Saturday 29 April 2023. To find out more call the Box Office on 017687 74411 or visit www.theatrebythelake.com.