Fifty-nine characters, eight actors, six trains, six boats, four fights, two dances, a storm, a circus act and an elephant will feature at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic when the theatre-in-the-round stages Around the World in Eighty Days.
Jules Verne’s epic tale of Victorian eccentricity, romance and derring-do has been adapted by Laura Eason and is being directed by New Vic artistic director Theresa Heskins.
Describing Around the World in Eighty Days as her “biggest challenge yet”, Theresa Heskins said, “achieving the impossible is a New Vic trademark.
“We’ll be finding the romance, adventure, wit and imagination of this joyous story as we take our audience on a trip around the world.”
Precise, stiff, starched and wealthy English bachelor Phileas Fogg wagers that he can circumnavigate the globe in precisely 80 days.
With his entire fortune on the line, he leaves London with just his wily manservant, £20,000 in banknotes, a change of clothing and his trusty pocket watch.
Racing through Europe, Asia and America, they jump from train to boat to elephant and back again, pausing only to save a beautiful Indian princess from certain death and battle bandits, buffalo, winter storms and Scotland Yard.
Three New Vic favourites will be reunited for this production which “promises to be as fast paced as Fogg’s own race against time”.
Andrew Pollard played Crichton in J M Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton, Arthur in Bill Naughton’s Spring and Port Wine and Falkland in Sheridan’s The Rivals at the New Vic in 2011.
Michael Hugo is a regular at the north Staffordshire theatre, his recent appearances including the Mad Hatter in J M Barrie’s Alice in Wonderland and Hal in David Auburn’s Proof.
Matt Connor took the role of Bob Cratchit in the New Vic’s production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at the New Vic last Christmas and previously appeared in The Admirable Crichton, Spring and Port Wine and The Rivals.
Around the World in Eighty Days runs at the New Vic from Friday (19 April) until Saturday 11 May.