Playwrights Theatre Centre
September 9, 2006 3:30pm
The Excursionists is a hilarious send up of a Jules Verne style adventure movie. Equal parts 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and Black Adder on a severely limited budget.
Our protagonists are Professor Goggins, and his sponsor and friend Lord Necksycracksy—two absurdly foppish British gentlemen who unexpectedly find that England has sunk into the ocean. Fortunately for them, they are aboard Goggins' fantastic invention, the underwater train christened the Neptunia Express.
They circumnavigate the globe in search of a new England. Along the way they encounter the usual mix of hostile natives, hostile cephalopods, and their own dark secrets. What's a Victorian era undersea adventure without a giant killer squid? That battle sequence is hilarious as Goggins and Necksycracksy make calamari out of the tentacled foe.
The show is torridly paced, and never lulls. Much of the humour is based on the stereotypical British eccentricities of our heroes. The no-budget special effects are cleverly done and—along with the score—recall the 1950's and 1960's British science fiction films.
Like all modern adventure series scripts they leave an opening for a sequel. Which I'd gladly see for Fringe Festival 2007. Highly recommended.
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