Playhouse in the Park presents, "Around the World in 80 Days" on Friday, Feb. 10 @ 7 pm

Event Date: 
Friday, February 10, 2017 - 7:00pm to 9:00pm

Around the World in 80 Days

By Toby Hulse

From the book by Jules Verne

February 10, 2017  

7 pm

Free Admission

513.563.2247 to reserve your seat

Join Phileas Fogg in the world’s most amazing race. Via rail, boat and even elephant, Fogg must travel the globe in just 80 days or he will forfeit a fortune. But a snooping detective, a possible human sacrifice and even the will of Mother Nature all conspire against Fogg’s adventure of a lifetime in this exciting adaptation of the Jules Verne classic. Just three actors portray 19 different characters to create a spirited, fast-moving, highly imaginative and hilariously entertaining comedy.

Recommended for ages 8 and up.

There are no elevators at the Cultural Arts Center due to its historic nature.

 

Around the World with Off the Hill

By Connie Yeager

The Playhouse’s popular, family-friendly Off the Hill Series embarks on an imaginative adventure with Around the World in 80 Days, which will perform on Friday, February 10 at 7 pm at the Evendale Cultural Arts Center.

Toby Hulse’s innovative adaptation of the classic Jules Verne story features intrepid Londoner Phileas Fogg in the world’s first amazing race, traversing the globe in just 80 days to claim a large wager on the enterprise. Along the journey of a lifetime — via boat, rail and even elephant — Fogg and his faithful French servant Passepartout encounter all sorts of obstacles, from a snooping Scotland Yard detective to the whims of Mother Nature. The hilariously entertaining comedy is recommended for ages 8 and up.

“I am very excited to share Toby Hulse’s adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days with students and families in the Tristate area,” says Daunielle Rasmussen, the Playhouse’s director of education and community engagement. “This is a fast-paced, exciting romp around the world with smart and funny dialogue. The creative team assembled to tell this story is a top-notch group of artists bringing this classic tale to life in a way that will delight audience members of all ages.”

Verne’s novel was published in 1873, long before the advent of such modern transportation modes as automobiles and airplanes. The adventure’s itinerary starts in London and hits such exotic locales as Egypt, India, Hong Kong and Japan before crossing the United States and returning to London.

Around the World in 80 Days will be directed by Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., the artistic director and co-founder of Civic Ensemble in Ithaca, N.Y.

“What excites me is the young, panethnic cast that’s been assembled to inhabit an adaptation of a novel that is at once a product of colonialism and a commentary on it,” Simmons says. “Fogg is an extremely British man who relies on the predictability and reliability of time and who finds himself thrust into a world that challenges his European notions of time, order and control. It’s really relevant to the battle in our county right now between going back to a time when things seemed more ordered and now, where everything we took for granted is open to challenge by the historically marginalized. In a weird way, it’s a play for our time.”

Three members of the Playhouse’s 2016-17 Bruce E. Coyle Acting Intern Company will portray the play’s 19 different characters.

While the classic story is set in a bygone era, Simmons says that kids will be drawn in by “the physical comedy, the wit, the blurring of the fourth wall. I think students will see that the actors are engaged in the story moment to moment, while also being aware they’re doing a play and are trying to do it as quickly as possible. It’s fun for students to see actors dance on the edge of disaster and come out of it looking masterful. The scenes move so quickly and actors are switching characters so quickly that the play leaves the audience and the actors breathless, which is a shared experience. Any time we as theatre-makers can create shared moments between audience and cast, we’ve done our job.

“I also think that kids will enjoy actors creating whole worlds without huge sets and a huge stage. There are moments of action, romance and intrigue in the play that will hook any audience. Students will also get a sense of how immense changes in technology transformed the world 100 years ago, much like digital advances at the beginning of this century. Fogg is relying on these advances to win his wager in Victorian England and yet must rely on guile and hard work when he embarks out into a world he can’t control.”

Around the World in 80 Days is the second of three Playhouse Off the Hill productions for the 2016-17 season, which will wrap up with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the spring.

Photo by Tony Arrasmith/Arrasmith & Associates.