Adapted for the stage by Mark Powell and performed with the River Tummel and Ben-y-Vrackie mountain as its spectacular backdrop, Around the World in 80 Days, runs at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 8 July – 17 September.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is set to take audiences around the world and back again in spectacular new grand adventure for all the family
Hold onto your top hats and get ready for the original high-speed chase as the team that brought you last year’s hugely successful production of The Wind in the Willows present a new adaptation for all the family of Jules Verne’s classic escapade.
Your adaptation of Around The World in 80 Days is coming to Pitlochry Festival Theatre, what can you tell us about this version?
It’s fast, fun and full of foreign treasures that allow Phileas Fogg to return a much better human thanks to the encounters he has around the world. There are songs for every step of Fogg’s quest and enough laughter and learning to give an audience something to chuckle at or chew on.
From what I’ve seen so far, the brilliant cast are bringing a wide range of characters (expected and unexpected) to life with real gusto and generosity of spirit. Amongst other changes to the original narrative, our adventure begins with a bet by Queen Victoria herself, so our version not only has a royal visitor at its centre, but also has higher-than-usual-stakes for Phileas Fogg.
How difficult is it to adapt a work that is as well-known as Jules Verne’s classic?
The biggest challenge with 80 Days is that the narrative is remarkably simple in the novel: Phileas goes off around the world with very little real jeopardy and actually spends a lot of his time on transportation.
If we’d been too true the original text, there would have been a glut of trains and ships on stage that could be dangerously dull to the eye. I was thrilled to find that Verne’s own theatrical adaptation was vastly different from the book; new characters, new locations and even a ballet and snake puppet show! Knowing Jules himself recognised stage and page need very different tactics: I also created a new set of stakes for Fogg and purposefully gave females much more voice in our story. Our Jean Passpartout is proving to be a particularly pleasing surprise!
This is your second year running adapting a classic for Pitlochry, what did you learn last year that has helped this year?
To read the original text several times, so that themes and characters seem as clear to me as I can hope them to be. To read about the author and their life to have some semblance of what might be driving them to write the story.
To dig beneath the characters and settings to see what might be the emotional hooks for audiences that keeps generations coming back to these stories and…while being respectful to these, other something new to engage both old and new fans.
You’ll never quite match the individual pictures in a reader’s imagination, so give them something unexpected and additional to counter any disappointment. With regards Pitlochry itself, the audiences are of every age, so you have to offer something for every taste and temperament. Most of all, a laugh goes a long way outside!
Why do you think Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s outdoor space is the ideal setting for Around The World in 80 Days?
Last year’s The Wind in the Willows was a natural fit, the outdoor stage is right by the beautiful River Tummel, so it made perfect sense for the company to look at it, refer to it and sing about it.
Audiences visibly enjoyed the story starting in the very place they were and then going on an imaginative journey with the company. Using this learning, 80 Days also starts in Pitlochry itself, with Queen Victoria arriving to open the new railway station while on her tour of the Highlands.
Phileas Fogg, just like Toad, is clearly Scottish and both starts and finishes his transformation on the banks of the Tummel, bringing the audience back to the very place they started from.
What are you most looking forward to about seeing your work brought to life?
Other artists being more creative and clever than I could ever be alone: finding love, laughter and life in places I imagined and more besides. I’ve already had the pleasure of seeing a unique Jean Passpartout, a wonderfully-wlllful Princess Auoda and the most terrifically-testy Queen Victoria.
An unexpected joy here has been the casting: directors Ben (Occhipinti) and Elizabeth (Newman) are giving every child a chance to see a reflection of themselves on stage. Our 80 Days is almost as magnificent in its variety as Fogg’s own trek. The best bit about having your words brought to life by others is not the seeing but the feeling that other artists are able to create with their own remarkable skills.
What would you say to anyone thinking of coming to see Around The World in 80 Days?
Get yourself something comfortable to sit on, be ready for rain and buckle up for a fast-paced passage through time and space. Don’t worry about not quite knowing what happens in this famous story (who does?), but expect a humane and heart-warming hour feeling like part of a creative community, actors and audience together. It’s a real treat to not only feel like you’re part of an outdoor event, but to have the actors acknowledge that everyone watching is an essential part of the performance they’re sharing.
