Spectacular design, inventive staging buoys 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea adaptation

If you've ever read Jules Verne's early science fiction classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea or watched the 1950s Disney film adaptation, you might not remember the part with the iPhone.

There were, of course, no Apple devices in Verne's original — but there are in the visually spectacular multimedia adaptation that closes out Manitoba Theatre for Young People's season, and mostly successfully blends the old with the new.

It comes courtesy of co-creators Craig Francis and Rick Miller. Francis is also part of the creative team behind Boom X — Miller's multimedia solo show currently running at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre — and Twenty Thousand Leagues shares some of that show's strengths, and a few of its weaknesses.

Here, Verne's famous and fantastical story of undersea adventure is wrapped in a framing device involving Jules (Jesse Nerenberg), a grad student despondent about the environmental collapse of the oceans. As part of his thesis work, he decides to retell the story of Twenty Thousand Leagues with an environmental spin — and casts himself as the narrator in Verne's Victorian-era story.

It's a slightly high-concept framing device and means the show gets off to a slow start as it sets up its story-within-the-story approach.

Things pick up as Jules, now serving as narrator, and Professor Aronnax (Katie Melby) take to the seas in search of the source of mysterious sightings of a giant creature — a quest that takes them into the world of the brilliant but megalomaniacal Captain Nemo (Richard Clarkin) and his amazing submersible, the Nautilus.

The show wastes no time, though, in establishing its inventive approach to telling its story.

Francis and Miller's adaptation uses an ingenious blend of stunning video projections (courtesy of Winnipeg filmmaker Deco Dawson), puppetry (by designers Shawn Kettner and Marcus Jamin) and miniature work using action figures and models, which is captured on live cameras and projected.

It's an approach that allows them to convincingly and effectively stage everything from the sinking of a ship at sea to a trip to the ocean floor to a battle with a giant squid.

It's also an approach that feels like it should open this adaptation up to more playfulness than it sometimes has. In its tight hour-long running time, it feels as though Twenty Thousand Leagues often rushes from scene to scene — and one bit of impressive stagecraft to the next — sometimes sacrificing story flow for style.

Notions like character development are also largely jettisoned here. Nerenberg has some fun switching between multiple characters, sometimes playing opposite himself, but the character of Jules is primarily stuck in the thankless role of narrator.

Clarkin brings an admirable gravity to his take on Nemo — by far the most complex and interesting character here — but Melby struggles to find a way to make the under-written character of Aronnax interesting.

This adaptation does, however, freshen the original source material somewhat by wrapping it in a contemporary environmental message — and by inviting young audiences to learn more by visiting a nifty online educational site connected to the show.

Despite its flaws, it's a production buoyed by its good intentions, and its innovative take on a classic story.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is produced by Kidoons and Wyrd Productions, in association with the 20K Collective. It runs at Manitoba Theatre for Young People until April 14.

Peter Pan, Frog and Toad next season

MTYP also recently announced a new season highlighted by a returning favourite, an acclaimed take on a classic, and a couple of shows from Down Under.

The 2019-20 season kicks off with an award-winning production of Peter Pan from Toronto's Bad Hats Theatre (Oct. 18-27).

The holiday season sees the return of A Year With Frog and Toad to MTYP — a musical favourite last seen at the theatre in 2008 (Dec. 6-29).

Australian company The Last Great Hunt returns to MTYP with New Owner (Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2020), which combines puppetry, live action and animation to tell the story of a lonely puppy waiting at an animal shelter. The Australian company previously brought its beautiful — and profoundly moving — shows The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer and It's Dark Outside to MTYP.

Another Australian company is bringing Beep (March 20-29), which tells the story of what happens when someone new comes to town — in this case, a crash-landed robot.

MTYP will also offer up shows that take on more serious themes. Tiny Treasures (Nov. 8-17, 2019) follows James, a 13-year-old caring for an ill mother. It was developed through workshops with young caregivers in the U.K.

Closer to home, The Mush Hole (Feb. 21-29) uses music, dance and theatre to explore the lives of children forced to attend an Ontario residential school.

And MTYP's 2019-20 season closes with Spelling 2-5-5 (May 1-9) from Nova Scotia writer Jennifer Overton, which looks at the relationship between two brothers, one of them on the autism spectrum.