Richmond Hill Players' "Around the World in 80 Days" is an entertaining study in contrasts.

It's billed as a "family comedy," yet doesn't talk down to its audience. Its main character is the least showy in a five-person cast. And somehow it's an expansive epic of a production - set, obviously, around the world - that plays nicely to the intimacy of the barn theater in Geneseo, Ill.

Jennifer Kingry directs, as well as designing the lights, sound and set, all of which show her eye for detail and a dollop of whimsy. While most of the set consists of a steamer trunk, two chairs and two crates that are used to create everything from a train to a ship to an elephant, large panels built above two sides of the audience serve as both accent pieces and visualizations of Phileas Fogg's 1872 journey.

Fogg is played by Greg Bouljon, a veteran of several Quad-City area theater companies who plays it straight in a rock-steady leading role. The script doesn't allow him much of a sense of humor or much personality, but fortunately three of his castmates fill that void.

Chris White, John VanDeWoestyne and Adam Overberg each present an array of verbal humor and visual slapstick that hit the target.

White glides through his role of Passepartout, Fogg's manservant, with an Inspector Clouseau accent and a thorough commitment to the visual gags.

VanDeWoestyne plays six roles, primarily Detective Fix (pursuing Fogg across the planet on a robbery accusation), with facial expressions and attitude that come straight from the screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s.

And Overberg pulls a yeoman's task of creating 18 - eighteen! - different characters. Each of them has their own personality and appearance (although Overberg himself has a beard that could have been removed), sometimes changing from one to another in a backstage nanosecond.

Rounding out the cast is Mary Bouljon, also in multiple roles, primarily as Aouda, a Parsi princess who is rescued by Fogg and Passepartout, getting most of her laughs from parts that require her to play a male.

The attention to detail by Kingry and her cast is extremely evident. All pantomime riding a train, an elephant or a ship with an equal amount of commitment, and the lines and motions are done in crisp unison.

The only thing missing from the family presentation was ... families. A decent-sized Sunday matinee crowd the first weekend included less than a handful of school-age children. For a show that youngsters (especially those with vivid imaginations) will enjoy as much as their parents (a couple of the lines enjoyably float over the kids' heads), it's highly advisable to make the trek to Geneseo.