Stoneham Goes "Around the World in 80 Days"

"Around the World in 80 Days"

 

A play by Mark Brown; based on the novel by Jules Verne; directed by Weylin Symes; set designer, Cristina Todesco; costume designer, Rachel Padula Shufelt; lighting designer, Mark Lanks; sound designer, Nathan Leigh

 

Cast in order of appearance:

Phileas Fogg, Steven Barkhimer

Passepartout, Christopher Brophy

Actor 1, Robert Saoud

Detective Fix, Victor Warren

Aouda, Eve Kagan

 

Next Up: A Christmas Story, November 25-December 23

Box Office: 781-279-2200 or www.stonehamtheatre.org

 

It's asking a lot to make a classic Jules Verne science fiction/fantasy adventure that deals with travel by train, boat, elephant, and prairie snow schooner work successfully on an intimate theatrical stage. But that's exactly what the Stoneham Theatre just north of Boston does thanks to whimsical direction, clever designs, and spirited performances by a cast of five who, through warp speed character and costume changes, seem more like 50 (30, actually, according to program notes).

 

The fantastical voyage of mathematical genius and stickler for logic Phileas Fogg begins when three stuffy gents from an English men's club bet him ₤20,000 that he can't circumnavigate the globe in 80 days or less. Eager to prove them wrong, Fogg, played ably by Steven Barkhimer as a cross between a stuffy W. C. Fields and a waddling Charlie Chaplin, proceeds to rattle off a meticulously designed itinerary that, if followed successfully, would make the precision of a Swiss watch look like the movements of a sun dial.

 

Fogg's plan, alas, leaves no margin for error. So when he and his trusty manservant and reluctant traveling companion Passepartout encounter a detective bent on arresting Fogg for bank robbery, an Indian Princess in need of rescuing, a typhoon at sea, a collapsed railroad bridge, marauding Apaches, and any number of other delays in their schedule, it takes incalculable luck, improvised cunning, and Herculean bravery to win the day.

 

Mark Brown's surprisingly funny and fanciful script, while heavy on narrative, manages to keep the action flowing by never taking itself too seriously. Yes, there are countless twisting plot points to be told, but vaudeville style humor delivered by vividly drawn characters captures Verne's ear for social satire and eye for the imaginative all the while moving the story briskly from London to the Orient and back again.

 

Brown's colorful adaptation is given an added lift by Weylin Symes' clever self-mocking direction. In the exaggerated style of turn-of-the-century melodramas, this fast-paced "Around the World in 80 Days" gives us burlesque asides, audience directed double takes, and cartoon-inspired sight gags. The elephant that transports Fogg and his growing entourage from Bombay to Calcutta is depicted by two ladders adorned with an unapologetic cardboard cutout head whose trunk lets out an echoing bleat every time a cast member pushes its unhidden button. The typhoon at sea creates a rumble through the audience thanks to amplified sound effects that punctuate the antics of the shipboard passengers who toss themselves to and fro across the deck and upon the railings.

 

The ultimate piece of comic staging, though, comes during the group's trek across the American West. As the locomotive gathers steam to make its leap across a raging river sans bridge, the actors bounce up and down and side to side to the ever quickening beat of the clackety clack upon the rails. When the train finally makes its magical ascent, the actors freeze as if in mid air only to become raucously animated once again when the train lands on the opposite bank with a resounding thud. Symes' agile cast enacts this bit of slapstick brilliantly, in perfect time to the sound effects and each other. They also do it in perfect character, each person taking on an attitude appropriate to his or her unique persona. The payoff is well earned thunderous applause.

 

The versatile ensemble gives Barkhimer's pragmatic Fogg wonderfully vigorous support. Christopher Brophy as the nervous Frenchman Passepartout (who was so gripping as the racist and homophobic pitcher in last season's "Take Me Out" at SpeakEasy Stage) shows his prissy, comic side here, whether grousing about the fine mess he's gotten himself into or sparring verbally with the dogged Scotland Yard PI. As the bumbling Detective Fix (as well as a host of other multi-accented individuals the travelers encounter along the way), Victor Warren is positively sublime. Reminiscent of the increasingly more frustrated Commissioner Dreyfus of the old Pink Panther movies, Warren gives us an obsession that grows more ridiculously manic as his efforts to thwart what he thinks is Fogg's attempt to escape justice grow more desperate and absurd.

 

Eve Kagan as Princess Aouda is plucky and endearing. She provides the warmth that gradually melts Fogg's calculated exterior and turns him from single-minded time keeper to self-sacrificing, chivalrous hero. Finally, the multi-talented Robert Saoud as Actor 1 changes countless times in the blink of an eye from one madcap character to another, chief among them a crusty sea captain, a British general, a Muslim priest, and an old curmudgeon. One of the funniest impromptu bits in the entire show comes when Saoud disappears behind the scenery for a quick costume and prop change and reappears seconds later holding his quickly applied mustache in place with the tip of his finger. "Around the World in 80 Days" is peppered with many similar pieces of shtick. The cast is obviously having a grand time delivering such gags, and the audience members waste no time getting right into the spirit themselves.

 

With this lighthearted and spirited romp, Stoneham Theatre seems to have gotten itself gleefully back on track. "Around the World in 80 Days" is a return to the fine form that was exhibited in such memorable productions as "Tommy," "Thrill Me" and "John and Jen." Let the quality continue with the company's upcoming offering – Philip Grecian's delightful stage adaptation of Jean Shephard's popular novel turned classic cult movie, "A Christmas Story." May Stoneham's holiday season be merry and bright.

 

PHOTO CREDITS:

 

1) Steven Barkhimer, Eve Kagan and Christopher Brophy

2) Christopher Brophy and Victor Warren

3) Eve Kagan, Steven Barkhimer and and Robert Saoud

 

Photos by Paul Lyden

 

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