It's Tristan Cunningham, however, who carries the show as the hapless Passepartout. Michael Gene Sullivan, as well, is a master at hamming up the bit parts in addition, his ability to give Detective Fix a palpable character arc and emotional growth while also doing pratfalls is commendable. Ron Campbell, whose ability to shapeshift into just about any character with the application of a fake mustache or a hat is absolutely stunning (and is often the source of the audience's loud guffaws). Both Jason Kuykendall (as Fogg) and Ajna Jai (as the princess Aouda) do an admirable job of playing the "straight man" foils to the character work going on around them. Under the direction of Robert Kelley, the cast handles this script admirably, with comedic timing so precise they'd make the "real" Phileas Fogg proud.Īs far as the acting goes, every actor is a standout, so the fact that they can work together without upstaging one another is another feat. As with any good farce, there are pratfalls, mistaken identities and silly sound effects galore. The conceit of Brown's adaptation of the book has five actors playing all of the parts, switching costume, accent, gait and facial hair at the drop of a hat. Throw into the mix a bumbling detective bent on arresting Fogg for a suspected robbery, an Indian princess rescued from certain death and several natural disasters, you should have the recipe for a good time.įrom a purely technical perspective, TheatreWorks puts on a fantastic show. Thus begins an adventure that takes Fogg, Passepartout and the friends, enemies and unexpected allies they make along the way around the world. Fogg wagers that he can make it around the world by train and steamer in 80 days and the men take him up on it, to the tune of £20,000.
On the day Passepartout arrives, the men at the gentlemen's club read an article announcing the completion of a transcontinental railroad in British-held India - making it technically feasible for a person to complete a round-the-world trip by train and steamship for the first time. When a new servant, a Frenchman named Passepartout, arrives, he sees this as the perfect assignment: After a wild and unpredictable life, he's ready to settle down and have some stability. He's driven out several servants with his finicky and exacting behavior, and the gentleman at his club think he's a bit of an odd duck.
"Around the World in 80 Days" follows the story of a British gentleman named Phileas Fogg, whose life has been completely predictable, punctual and devoid of friendship or family. Yet TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has pulled it out of the time capsule, bringing the 2001 adaptation by playwright Mark Brown to Palo Alto this holiday season. It's very probable that Jules Verne, French author and one of the fathers of science fiction, never anticipated that his "Around the World in 80 Days" would be playing as a madcap farce on stages in 2017. Phileas Fogg (Jason Kuykendall), Sir Francis (Ron Campbell) and Parsi (Michael Gene Sullivan) navigate their way through the jungle in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's "Around the World in 80 Days."