Promotional feature
Circus meets theatre on stage at the Crewe Lyceum next month as Around The World In 80 Days rolls into town.
Author Jules Verne’s original characters are transformed in this new adaptation by Juliet Forster, embracing different modes of transport as they journey across the globe.
Audiences can join the Ringmaster, the Acrobat, the Clown, the Trick Rider and the Knife Thrower on their frantic race to travel around the world in 80 days.
Tilted Wig Productions has just revealed the cast for this brand-new retelling of the iconic story, which is set to come to Crewe towards the end of February.
Each actor will multi-role as part of the rag-tag band of travelling circus performers who embark on a daring mission to recreate Phileas Fogg’s race around the world.
Meet the cast
Alex Phelps (As You Like It, Shakespeare’s Globe/CBeebies; When Darkness Falls, Park Theatre/UK Tour; Hamlet, Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre) will be playing the determined ringmaster, Phileas Fogg.
Taking on the role of the acrobat Nellie Bly is actor and puppeteer Katriona Brown (There’s a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom and Other Stories, Little Angel Theatre; Chum-o-logues, Southwark Playhouse).
Genevieve Sabherwal (My Grandma’s a Walrus, Southwark Playhouse; Speed Dial, Pleasance; Spooky Ship, Bristol Old Vic) will be performing as the Aouda, the trick rider.
Wilson Benedito (50 Ways to Kill Your Lover, Amazon; Alan Carr’s New Year Specstacular, Channel 4) provides comedic relief as the clown Passepartout.
Rounding off the cast as the sharp-witted knife thrower Detective Fix is Eddie Mann (Rocketman, Paramount; Macbeth, Three Inch Fools; Back to The Future, Secret Cinema).
Meet the director
The play’s director Juliet Forster commented: “I was amazed that we generally know more about Jules Verne’s fictional characters than we do about the real woman, Nellie Bly, who set the record for circumnavigating the globe in 1889 – and did the journey in less time – I knew I had to tell her story.
“I found that this approach allowed interesting themes to emerge around whose stories get told, whose stories dominate and who should stand aside to give space to the untold ones.”
Around The World In 80 Days is adapted and directed by Forster, who is also creative director of The York Theatre Royal.
Tilted Wig
Tilted Wig Productions was formed in 2017 by Katherine Senior and Matthew Parish, who have over fifteen years of experience producing and touring plays throughout the UK, taking over 20 productions out on the road.
Their shows now tour around some of the biggest theatres in the UK, yet their original ethos has always remained the same: whether Titled Wig is producing a classic play or a vibrant new adaptation, they always aim to inspire a bright and innovative creative team to take their stories UK-wide.
Tickets and booking
Dates: 23rd – 26th February
Venue: Crewe Lyceum, Heath Street, Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 2DA
Click to book: www.crewelyceum.co.uk/online/tickets-around-the-world-in-80-days-crewe-2023
