Jules Verne’s novel  about the English gentleman, Phileas Fogg, circumnavigating the globe is a fairly well known tale and all for One Productions will be brining it to life on the stage this month! (In the spirit of full disclosure I will once again be among the cast for this show and if that’s a minus for you well… you had plenty of chances to see shows without me this season so I don’t want to hear about it.)

While not one of Verne’s most famous works 80 Days does hold a special place in literature as something like the world’s first travelogue and offers a lot of tongue in cheek looks at English and French mannerisms, towards each other and in a vacuum, circa the late 1800s. At the same time it offers a look at the importance of personal integrity, something Fogg has in spades, and the importance of priorities, something Fogg is not exactly good with.

Now if you’re familiar with the Pierce Brosnan TV miniseries that adapted the work the idea that this story is a comedy may be a surprise to you – it was my first introduction to the work and still probably the definitive one in my mind. But this is a really funny story of the fish out of water variety. Not all of the humor comes from the contrast between the straight laced Fogg and the world at large. A great deal of it comes from the differences between Fogg and his manservant Passepartout and those between Passepartout and the irascible
Detective Fix.

While humor abounds in the story and the impetus of the trip is a bet between Fogg and some of his associates in London the real center of the story is when Detective Fix mistakes Fogg for a notorious bank robber and chases him around the world. It’s Fogg’s unshakable integrity that convinces Passepartout to stand with his employer when the accusation comes to light. In turn Passepartout’s solidarity
lets Fogg stay just ahead of Fix… for a while.

All for One is proud to present this classic story. Show dates are April 24th-26th and May 1st-3rd. Tickets can be ordered from the afO website so if you’re going to be in the Fort Wayne area then go ahead and give it a look. I will personally guarantee you’ll have a good time.

Although I wouldn’t go so far as to wager 20,000 pounds sterling on it…