Make sure to stuff your inner-boy into your pocket or purse before you come to the Jungle to see Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies' delightful, fabulist tale, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself).

In a cross between Jeune Lune-style physical theater and a period Victorian traveling sideshow, Shipwrecked ... tells the story of flamboyant Louis de Rougemont, who sets off as an over-protected 16-year-old English boy to discover the world. A rum-bibbing sea captain invites him to go pearl hunting in the Coral Sea off the Australian coast, where incredible adventures unfold, including a deep sea whirlpool, the titular shipwreck, survival on a coral island, stilt-walking warfare, sea turtle riding, marriage to an aboriginal, being worshipped as a sea god—well you get the general idea.

In energetic pacing, Director Joel Sass sails through the chapters of this 100-minute picaresque tale at a 30-knot clip, and packs the piece with delightful inventiveness. He designed a simple set and cluttered it with Rube Goldberg props for on-stage sound and visual effects.

Therein lies much of the playful charm of Shipwrecked .... It is a self-consciously old-fashioned, bare-bones play that shows all the ribs of stage artifice. When a crew member dives for pearls, one of the on-stage musicians shoves his head into a large box of water and gurgles noisily. A shadow puppet, representing a crew member, is devoured by a giant octopus; another twirls and leaps to show de Rougemont's acrobatic panache. Chapters of de Rougemont's story are announced by drop cloths that become storm-driven waves, rattled by thunder from a shaken metal sheet.

Visibly present support artists make all this stage magic happen before audience eyes, and serve as shadowy foils for the play's four strong actors. Michael Booth as extrovert de Rougemont addresses the house as "dear audience" and enters his role with infectious gusto. Stephen Cartmell steals whole scenes as Bruno, the loyal bulldog, and as a squat Queen Victoria, among other characters. Emily Gunyou Halaas plays a slew of characters, most notably de Rougemont's fussy mother and Yamba, an aboriginal princess. Versatile Edwin Strout becomes Captain Jensen and nine other characters. They work together as a tight ensemble and appear to have great fun on stage.

Playwright Margulies obviously researched Shipwrecked ... thoroughly, perhaps too thoroughly, and here lies a fault in the play. It's a true story of an ordinary man who traveled but who made up an incredible story and sold it to a successful magazine, which sold millions of copies. Eventually, members of the Royal Society for the Advancement of Science exposed his lie. Margulies might have been wiser to have spent less time on Rougemont's dwindling celebrity. The fabulous momentum of the play slows in the final seven minutes and peters out.

Please note, dear reader, my criticism reflects no fault in the Jungle's clever production. Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) is fresh and highly entertaining and, (As Reviewed by Myself,) not to be missed.

Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) May 21 - June 28, 2009. Fridays and Saturdays, 8:00 p.m. Tuesdays -Thursdays 7:30 p.m. Sundays 2:00 p., and 7:30 p.m. Tickets $28 -$36 at 612- 2822-7063, or online at www.jungletheater.com. Jungle Theater, 2951, Lyndale Ave. South, Minneapolis, 55408.

- Elizabeth Weir

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