Press
‘Around the World in 80 Days’ is Lookingglass at its beguiling best
Maybe it’s the delicious clockwork nature of the whole adventure. Or its droll, “Pink Panther”-like humor. Or the clever magnetic map that makes it so easy to track the breathless voyage by land and sea. Or maybe it’s the winning delicacy of the East-West romance that begins to bubble up over teacups that can’t quite find their equilibrium at sea.
And of course there can be no question about it: That thrilling escape on the back of an elephant in India, and that snow-speckled glide on a sail-driven sled over the Great Plains are pure, unadulterated magic.
Happily, there is no need to choose any particular giddy pleasure, for Lookingglass Theatre’s utterly beguiling production of “Around the World in 80 Days” is chock full of them. And you can take the journey without a passport, or the hassles of airport check-in or guilt about leaving a giant carbon imprint.
This production is Lookingglass at its very considerable best — a high-spirited, imagination-filled escapade that makes use of a slew of theatrical tricks, among which the most notable is the ability of a polymorphous eight-person cast to suggest a cast of hundreds. And Laura Eason’s exceptionally graceful adaptation of the Jules Verne classic — which she also has directed with the lightest and most seamless sense of balletic whimsy — manages to be both wise and fun-filled. Yes, it makes its points about the British colonial mind, the attitudes of both the ruled and the ruler, the sadness of exile, and the essential yin and yang of personalities needed to make this world tick, but it does so with exquisite understatement. Above all, in a story driven by the making of wagers, it lays its bets on enchantment and invariably comes up a winner.
The story is stopwatch-driven: Phileas Fogg (Philip R. Smith, in an ideal role he handles with great subtlety) is a wealthy, obsessively habit-driven British bachelor with no flair for the poetry of life but a certain reckless belief in his own infallibilty. When news of the completion of a portion of India’s railroad network — and the possibility of circling the globe in 80 days — makes its way around his cigar-smoke-filled gentleman’s club, he bets his life savings that he can do it.
Luckily, his new French valet, the former circus performer Passepartout (another stellar turn by the tireless, acrobatic, comically brilliant Kevin Douglas), will be by his side. The two set out with nothing but a stash of cash and books of train and ship schedules. It’s Passepartout who sees and experiences everything along the way (and often comes close to losing his life), but it is Fogg who falls in love with Mrs. Aouda (the ravishing Ravi Batista), the eye-opening young Indian widow he rescues. And in doing so his world view shifts radically.
Joe Dempsey is a hoot as Inspector Fix, a Clouseau-like investigator from Scotland Yard who trails the two travelers all along the way. And Nick Sandys (also the fine fight director), Rom Barkhordar, Ericka Ratcliff and Anish Jethmalani are brilliant in countless roles, from sailors to acrobats.
Jacqueline & Richard Penrod’s set (think of it as a ship, a study or a luxurious cigar humidor) is exceptionally handsome and complex, with Mara Blumenfeld’s Victorian-era costumes, Lee Keenan’s lighting, Joshua Horvath’s wonderfully evocative sound, Kevin O’Donnell’s musical scoring and Tracy Walsh’s choreography all intrinsic to the beauty and wit of this production — a show that should sail the world.
Diverse Engineering
Time Out Chicago
African-American sketch and improv comics continue to create.
By Steve Heisler
“Audiences tend to be surprised,” says Inda Craig-Galván, half of the politically charged sketch duo kevINda. “They’ll come up to us after our show and say, ‘You guys are so smart.’ It’s like they expected us to buffoon and do Jimmie J.J. Walker.” She isn’t talking about some long-ago show or backwoods venue. Her group—which will join Schadenfreude at Steppenwolf’s Celebration of Chicago Sketch Comedy Monday 14—
performs for Los Angeles industry folk and audiences at national comedy festivals. The reality is that even for African-American sketch and improv groups that find success, the going remains rough.
Four Cast
August 3, 2007
BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic, Sun-Times
They are all young — in their 20s or early 30s — and not only have they amassed a number of impressive stage credits but they have demonstrated exceptional versatility and polish in recent productions.
Aspen Post
Last night I checked out the HBO Comedy Arts Festival and the laughter was abundant in the tent when “Windy City Sketch” took the stage. This featured event showcases Chicago improv groups.
…we were introduced to the comic stylings of “kevINda” where the introduction was shocking, explosive and downright funny.
Blaxploitation 2
February 22, 2007
Kris Vire, TimeOut
Shepsu Aakhu’s backdrop of blackface images, recreated from turn-of-the-20th-century advertisements, sets the tone. The second round of comedy sketches from the team behind Blaxploitation: The Remix visits the expected themes, but with a heavy emphasis on internalized racism—the ways in which old-time minstrel show stereotypes have been incorporated into modern African-American culture. There are indictments of BET and reality television, and there’
s plenty of material about the black community holding itself back by supporting the wrong elements.
Blaxploitation 2
February 16, 2007
Zac Thompson, Chicago Reader
Against a provocative backdrop of outsize minstrel-show advertisements, this pungent new sketch revue mines modern racial issues for bitter laughs. Writers Kevin Douglas, Inda Craig-Galvan, and Carla Stillwell display sharp, uncompromising wit…