After the firefighter’s museum and the lake, today the stage of “Around the World in Eighty Days” is on an actual stage. We’re in the Teatro Sociale in the centre of Mantua. The chairs, the game board and the DJ equipment are all set on the stage, but in the opposite direction to their usual one. Once again, a “Previously on…” scene takes us back through our previous trips to London, Suez, the Indian forest, the introduction of Aouda, Passepartout’s trip and the meeting in the Japanese circus.

The third episode begins on the “Voyager JulesVerne Shuttle” in the Milky Way, where we can see Japan and the California coast. But the automatic pilot then brings us back to reality and the scene quickly shifts to the steamer on the way to San Francisco, travelling at high speed across the Pacific Ocean and Mr Fogg is one day ahead of schedule. We get to San Francisco and we luckily win a “Parallel Universe Button” which, should we need it, will take us back to Japan when necessary.

Detective Fix, who managed to join the travellers by lying about his identity, meets Passepartout who, remembering what happened in China, beats him up in a meticulously described fight scene. Fix is on the losing side, but with “no permanent damage, two days of general intense pain and an unconditioned sense of fear and obedience”. From this point onwards, he will be forced to help the crew.

(caricamento...)

The tone of the scene shifts quickly and audience is asked to clap their hands as loud as possible for either of the actors, now impersonating a Republican and a Democratic candidate respectively in an impromptu American election. The Democrats win and this means we don’t get a gun. We switch to dinnertime and we’re now in a restaurant, and as the description by Jules Verne of its black waiters is read by the actors, we see the return of the KKK from yesterday who comes on stage gives us another “racism point”. Once again the mentality and the social issues of the present are compared with those of the past, through comedy.

The next chapter sees out protagonists on a coast to coast train that can cross the States in a week. They reach Utah and Nevada, but accidentally enter Area 51, and as a penalty we need to describe and provide two human beings to an alien. Barbie and Ken dolls are chosen to represent our species, the aliens come to understand that the average human is muscular, with weird body proportions, no genitals, wears permanent make-up and is made of plastic. The dolls are then teleported into the UFO with a string.

As we travel across Nebraska, the Tourist Guide discusses the modern history of the United States with a particular focus on Atomic Tourism in the 1950s, when people used to go and watch experimental nuclear explosions for entertainment. The train is then attacked by natives, portrayed through the DJ putting on a giant Mickey Mouse head and shooting the actors, eventually killing Passepartout. Thanks to the Extra Life the audience won previously, we get the opportunity to rewrite the story, Passepartout was now just kidnapped by the natives. Mr Fogg rides a horse in the desert searching for him, and soon afterwards the butler and some other passengers are saved.

In the next chapter, we ride an iceboat to Omaha, where the last train leaves for New York soundtracked, naturally, by New York New York by Frank Sinatra. The travellers miss the boat across the Atlantic due to confusion about time zones, and Aouda is desperate but Mr. Fogg, reassuring her, says, “don’t worry, I have a plan”. The curtains open - they’re behind the actors because of the arrangement of the stage - the actors jump off stage and the final scene sees them running out of the theatre, carrying surf boards!

Tomorrow’s leg of the journey - the final one - will take us from New York to London, bon voyage!