Almost 150 years after Jules Verne wrote Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and six decades after Disney turned the book into a technicolor motion picture, two Canadians have brought the classic tale to the stage.
The play was co-written by Rick Miller and Craig Francis and opened Panamania Saturday. The arts and culture festival takes place during the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games.
Both Miller and Francis read the classic science fi ction novel when they were kids and were inspired to create a theatrical adaptation that would appeal to children — and adults.
“I love the story,” Francis said. “I think it’s a great adventure.”
The Victorian-era tale is relevant today because there are still plenty of mysteries hidden in the depths of the world’s oceans, he said.
“That book is from 150 years ago, and now there’s still parts (of the ocean) we haven’t discovered, and there are others we’ve almost ruined, so we have this full circle effect,” Francis said. “We’re also in a new age of creativity and technology now, as we were in the enlightenment when this was written.”
The playwrights hope that the production will inspire theatregoers to give some thought to state of the world’s oceans. When Francis and Miller adapted the story for the stage, they added a modern-day character who is trying to fi nish a thesis on the collapse of ocean eco-systems when he is thrust into the world of his favourite story, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
