Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

Cast: Pushpinder Chani, Kirsten Foster, Matthew Ganley, Dennis Herdman, Michael Hugo, Nyron Levy, Joey Parsad, Andrew Pollard, Stefan Ruiz.

Time was when travelling meant more than just getting on a plane and complaining that the seats weren’t wide enough, the chance to leave a half-baked witticism on a website that gives you free reign to vent steam or to take the obligatory picture of your legs as they start to resemble sausages left in the frying pan for longer than is safe to do. Time was when it meant adventure, and whilst some still lovingly cling to that idea, now the over-riding thought is that it a holiday deserved, not a moment to be taught a lesson or to have your mind expanded.

Around The World In 80 Days is much more than just a book about wagers and adventure, it is about Time, the journey perceived and how, if we are fortunate to be caught in its wake between the tic and tock, the change it bring to us all, those that seek adventure, the growth is immeasurable.

Time, we strive to gain it and invariably ending up behind the hand as it chips away towards the appointed hour, but for two hours on stage at the Liverpool Playhouse, Time was firmly and enjoyably on the side of all captured by the dazzling production directed by Theresa Heskins of Jules Verne’s Around The World In 80 Days.

In Michael Hugo, the Playhouse Theatre and the wider U.K. stage has always had within its palms, one of the most ingenious of foils, an actor who catches the audience with a single glance and who can turn any led fed into one of genius. It is not just in Mr. Hugo’s consummate ability to make the character he inhabits one that opens the thought of understanding the humour within human nature. It is the ease in which he brings so tangibly the audience to within the thick of the action, the way they can see the joke through his eyes. It is a rare power that brings everything around it to life, like a sorcerer’s spell it glimmers at the heart of all it touches and like truth it is a rare commodity to hold in the soul.

A production that has so much movement contained within it requires absolute attention to detail, the sleight of hand that signals change of moment, the playful nature in which the cast expertly, and with subtly, mimic the natural elements, the presence of each destination on the map as Phileas Fogg attempts to circumnavigate the globe within the required time, is beguiling and one that must be given credit to the creatives behind the scenes, as well the actors on stage.

Life is a journey and one that should have no borders hindering progress, Around The World In 80 Days is a play that celebrates such a thought and one that is unafraid to go off the map in search of the next eye-catching moment.

Ian D. Hall.