Around the World in 80 Days. Based on the novel by Jules Verne. Adapted for the stage by Toby Hulse Directed by Terence O'Connell. Ellis Productions and Aleksandar Vass. Suitable for adults, families and children over seven. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. August 2-5. theq.net.au.
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When it's been adapted to the big screen, Jules Verne's 19th-century globetrotting adventure Around the World in 80 Days has boasted a huge scale and a cast to match. In this stage adaptation, the opposite approach is taken: all the parts are played by just three actors who enact everything from sea storms to elephant rides.
One of them, Ian Stenlake, says, "It's such a vast. epic journey and story - we go at a fast and terrific pace."
He says, "I get to play about five characters - some very brief - including a storekeeper and a train conductor - and we all get to narrate."
Sometimes it's simply a matter of quickly changing a hat and an accent and then it's on to quickly creating the next character, scene and vignette. And, he admits, there are times when the rapid changes in quick succession have led to mix-ups, have led to mix-ups, but it's all part of the fun for actors and audience, and it doesn't happen very often. The show has been likened to another play that's recently been produced in Canberra, The 39 Steps, which Stenlake hasn't seen, but has heard of, and he says the two adaptations seem to share many features: literary adaptation, small cast, many roles, and a mix of spoofery and sincerity requiring plenty of hard work and energy.
"You rely on the two other actors to be on top of their game, to be there for you."
His principal character is Phileas Fogg, the London gentleman who takes on the challenge of circumnavigating the globe in less than three months as the result of a £20,0000 wager at the Reform Club of which he is a member. He is accompanied on the undertaking by his recently acquired valet Passepartout (Sharon Millerchip) - and pursued by the dogged Detective Fix (Wayne Scott Kermond) of Scotland Yard. Fogg is said to resemble a man who stole a large sum of money, and he had £40,000 in a bag with him on the day of the bet. so it all looks very suspicious.
Stenlake is the sole holdover from a previous mounting of the show last year. Millerchip and Kermonde have stepped in for this multi-city tour and play many roles including, in Kermonde's case, the Indian princess Auoda, saved by Fogg from being burned alive in the ritual of sati after her husband died and joining the two men on their journey.
One of the aspects of the show Stenlake most enjoys is the sense of old-fashioned adventure it evokes.
"It would have been great," he says, "[for example] to go to the Suez Canal and have one foot in two countries."
While he's had a varied career including television and straight theatre, Stenlake says "musicals have been 80 per cent of the last 20 years for me" and he's enjoyed the chance to get back to a play. But it won't be long before he'll be back in a musical, and a big one: he will begin a 13-month national tour of Mamma Mia! in Canberra at the end of the year.
