Malvern Festival Theatre – until Saturday 18 February 2023
Reviewed by Julie Bellerby
3***
This adaptation by Juliet Forster is suitable for all ages of theatre goers. It combines the story by Jules Verne along with the real life experiences of journalist Nellie Bly, who completed her trip around the world in less time than Phileas Fogg.
Presented on Stage by the Tilted Wig Productions Theatre Group which has been performing and touring plays since 2017, was founded by Katherine Senior and Matthew Parish along with the Theatre Group Creative Cow Company have produced and toured plays have 16 years’ experience together.
The stage was very impressive when we took our seats, it was bright and colourful like a circus tent where the story took place. There was some acrobatics and much slap-stick humour throughout, I feel more practice with the acrobatics is required, it was not confidently performed. This is only the 3rd theatre in the tour so hopefully this will improve. You needed to have a good imagination to picture the various scenes.
With a team of 5 actors lead by Alex Phelps playing Phileas Fogg, who commanded the stage well, with Genevieve Sabherwal, Wilson Benedito, Eddie Mann and Katriona Brown all performed well together with good timing on stage for a smooth production.
The lighting was impressive, designed by Alexandra Stafford, it changed to reflect countries and the mood of the characters well, subtly completed without the audience necessarily realising the changes were happening. With production Design by Sara Perks, Sound by Edwin Gray and Costume Supervisor Hazel Jupp, and all brought together by Director Juliet Forster, it was a light hearted, easy watching, and funny production