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Around the World in 80 Days, Leeds Playhouse/Touring
Inventive adaptation of Jules Verne’s globetrotting classic sets a relentless pace
Nimble: Darren Kuppan (left) as Fix of the Yard
[David Lindsay]
When the ravages of Alzheimer’s leave an elderly woman marooned in painful memories of October 1950, her grandchild comes up with a creative strategy.
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SOME books take on a life of their own that’s bigger than the author ever imagined and that’s true of Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, a fast-moving adventure now synonymous with the image of a hot-air balloon.
Yet such a mode of transport is never employed in the original 1873 novel and that misconception is a running gag in Toby Hulse’s irreverent adaptation in its frequent referencing to travelling by balloon as we follow the exploits of Phileas Fogg and his manservant Passepartout.
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