Around the Pond in 80 Days
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Come with us on the incredible adventures of Phileas Frog and Pasper Toad as they attempt to go…Around The Pond In 80 Days. Follow our intrepid heroes as they face all kinds of perils journeying over land, through water and beyond the clouds in this fabulous family fable based on the Jules Verne novel of nearly the same name.
Around The Pond In 80 Days was written as a flexible performance piece for a variety of productions. It can be performed by a large cast of children – Years 6 to 9, ages 10 to 14 – being particularly suitable as a leavers’ show for top year juniors. Alternatively, it can be performed by a cast of 8 adults with doubling.
It incorporates many various music styles to emphasise the idea of travelling. Most of the songs are chorus numbers which don’t put too much pressure on individual performers, but allow the whole group to shine – particularly appropriate when young children are singing the songs.
The scenery can be as simplex or as complex as budgets, time or capabilities allow. Each animal family can be suggested with the simplest of prop or costume, such as a hat or coloured t-shirt.
1.
Around The Pond.. Frogs/Phil/Pass/Fink......
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2. 80 Days (2-6).. Dragonflies/Phil/Pass
3. Snake In The Grass.. Fix/Phil/Pass
4. King Of The Toads.. Toadettes/Nat
Natterjack
5. My One True Frog.. Phoebe
6. Crayfish.. Crayfish
7. 80 Days (15).. Fireflies
8. Ol’ Pikey.. Sticklebacks......
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9. 80 Days (34 - 40) ..Mosquitos
10. Rise Up Towards The Sun.. Newts/Phil/Pass/Phoebe/Fix
11. The Waterfall ..Wavemakers
12. 80 Days (60 – 70).. Water
Rats
13. The Pursuit Of Flies.. Phil/Phoebe/Fix/Water
Rats........Listen
Now
14. 80 Days (71 – 79).. Creatures
15. Around The Pond – Reprise.. Frogs/Fink/Phil/Pass/Phoebe/Fix/Sticklebacks
PHILEAS
FROG, (aka
Phil) our intrepid hero
PASPER TOAD, (aka Pass) Phil’s faithful,
fat, French friend
PHOEBE, a frog princess
FIX, (female) a sneaky snake in the grass
FINK, boss of the lily-pad factory
Various
Frogs
DRAGONFLIES
THE TOADETTES, a girl gang
WAITER,
NAT NATTERJACK, the King of the Toads
CRAYFISH,
FIREFLIES,
BIG STICKLE, a wise, old stickleback
LITTLE STICKLE, a silly, young stickleback
VARIOUS STICKLEBACKS
MOSQUITOES
FRNKLIN NEWT}
BABBAGE NEWT}
HODGKIN NEWT}
CAPABILITY NEWT} eminent scientific newts
FISHERMAN
WAVEMAKERS
OL' PIKEY
LAWYER RAT
JUDGE RAT
PROSECUTOR
VARIOUS WATER RATS
In the summer of 2004, the musical was staged at two very different London schools, Ibstock Place, in Roehampton, and Bonner Primary School, Bethnal Green. At both schools it met with universal acclaim from children, teachers and audience alike. May 2005 it was showcased at Musical Futures, Greenwich Theatre using an adult cast of 6 with a children’s chorus from Deansfield Primary School, Eltham.
The
adult cast at Greenwich Theatre was:-
Luke Leeves,
Matt Ambrose
Sarah Applewood
Louise McCarthy
Craig O’Hara
Gemma Whelan
Director, Janet Free; Costumes, Jan Rosser; MD, Paul Chilvers; Produced,
Dead Men Productions.
Subsequently, Around The Pond was performed at St. Saviour’s Primary School, Herne Hill, London.
Around The Pond In 80 Days is published by Samuel French Ltd
Some audience reaction from Musical Futures, Greenwich Theatre:
“Really enjoyable, great songs, dialogue, humour, and the children were well incorporated into the piece.”
“Delightful. Wonderful, humorous songs. Witty parody. Tuneful and engaging.”
“Absolutely brilliant! Funny; music was great; staging was great. The kids were great. Really fun, and good morals for kids.”
“Fantastic!!! Singing and acting were great, could not fault it.”
In
a lily-pad factory in Amphibia, Phileas Frog works as a riveter. Phil
dreams of adventures, of travel to exotic lands, of maybe someday even
circumnavigating the pond. His co-workers scoff at such a suggestion.
Everyone knows it’s impossible to travel all the way around the pond.
The evil boss of the factory, Fink, sees his chance to exploit the situation
and challenges Phileas to complete the journey. Much to the horror of
his friend, Pasper, Phileas bets his luxury pad on the wager. And what’s
more, he says he’ll complete the journey before the great tree loses
its last autumnal leaf…only 80 days away!
Pass decides to accompany him and the pair set off, unaware that Fink
has employed a female viper called Fix - to sabotage their journey.
A few days from Amphibia and our intrepid duo come to the Reed Beds. They go ’round in circles in the dense reeds until Phil has an idea: he rips up some napkins and uses them to mark their trail. They head off again, but Fix comes along and picks up the pieces of napkin. They keep going round and round until Fix almost bumps into the back of them. She pleads innocence and sings about how nobody likes snakes. To earn their trust, Fix shows them the way out of the Reed Beds.
Ending
up in the toad capital of Wartville, Phil tries to get some food but is
refused, as he is a frog. However, Pass is so fat that he easily passes
for a toad. A group of female toads (the Toadettes) drag in Phoebe, a
beautiful frog princess. She is due to be married off to the King of the
Toads.
There is a big commotion. It’s Nat Natterjack – the King of
the Toads - an enormous, ugly toad with a serious stink. This makes him
irresistible to the Toadettes but repulsive to Phoebe.
It looks like there is no escape for her, until Pass enters looking very
cool and sporting a great new smell…Detoadorant! As the Toadettes
swoon, Phileas sneaks Phoebe out of the back door. Pass escapes as the
Toadettes fall over themselves to adore him.
Having escaped Wartville, Phoebe refuses to swim another stroke. Pass scouts ahead to find a safe place to spend the night - in his opinion the princess is a bit of a pain and he isn’t at all surprised her father sold her. Phoebe is hurt by the suggestion.
Suddenly there is a cry for help. Pass is caught in some fishing line. Every time he struggles it just gets tighter and tighter. The line is far too strong for the frogs to break but luckily a group of crayfish appear and they cut through the line with their pincers.
Safely
untangled, Pass is sure that the fishing line was left as a trap. Phileas
dismisses this idea. Humans leave all kinds of rubbish about the place
and never care if some helpless animal gets hurt. They decide to rest
up for the night.
The next morning, Pass finds Fix inspecting the cut fishing line. He’s
certain the sneaky snake is trying to slow them down but she professes
her innocence saying that she only wants to join their adventure.
She
tells them that the rocky shore continues for a long while and the best
way for them to proceed would be to build a boat. Pass is convinced this
will only waste more time but Phileas and Phoebe agree to Fix’s suggestion.
Some time later, a school of Sticklebacks notice the poorly-constructed
boat in trouble and tow the hapless sailors to safety. The gang wonder
if the sticklebacks mightn’t be able to give them a lift a little
further round the pond, but the Sticklebacks are too afraid. Ol’
Pikey, a giant fish that lives near the waterfall, would eat them all
up if they ever left the shallows. The group continue their journey on
land.
The rains begin and soon the gang are confronted by a large mountain of trash. They have found themselves in the fantastic city of the future, Newtopia, founded by the brainiest newt ever - Isaac Newt. However, despite being inhabited by the greatest newt scientists, the city is a dump, as they never seem able to agree on any thing. Phileas tells the newts they must learn to work together if they are ever going to achieve anything. The newts finally learn to co-operate and build a fantastic balloon to fly the gang over the mountain.
Flying over a waterfall, the balloon springs a leak and quickly loses altitude. Phileas, Pass and Fix are thrown clear onto the bank, but Phoebe ends up in deep water. Pass remembers the Sticklebacks warning about Ol’ Pikey living by the waterfall!
They
see a fin in the water heading for Phoebe. Phileas dives in to save her,
but now Phil is in danger. Things look bleak but, just as Phileas is being
dragged under, Ol’Pikey is hooked by a fisherman who’s been
trying to catch him for years.
With Phil unconscious, Pass accuses Fix of trying to sabotage their journey.
Phoebe sends Pass off to find some food and the snake confesses her role
as Fink’s agent - although she swears the balloon crashing was no
fault of hers; travelling with the gang she has learned the true value
of friendship. Fix goes after Pass to try to explain.
Phileas eventually wakes and he and Phoebe share a tender moment. This is shattered when Fix races back in: Pass has been arrested by the Water Rats for ‘stealing flies without a license’.
n court, with things looking pretty grim for Pass, his friends provide
a convincing argument that the frog was simply abiding by the Laws of
Nature. The case is thrown out of court and Pass is allowed to go free.
The gang are running out of time, but should still be able to make it
back before the last leaf falls. Then, just as they are in sight of Amphibia,
they reach the weir – it is swollen by the autumn rains and is in
full flood. It is impossible to cross.
The frogs gather and Fink announces that the last leaf is about to fall. The luxury pad is surely his. At that moment, the sticklebacks appear towing Phileas and the gang… now that Ol’ Pikey is out of the way the little fish can once more swim wherever they want to. Phil has gone around the pond in 80 day. He has won the bet, his luxury pad is safe and everybody’s invited back for tea.
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