This exciting new production of ‘The Jungle Book’ is a visually spectacular show and there is magic in the details, the mannerisms of the animals – wolves sniffing the air and greeting each other, the movement around the amazing, multi level set – monkey’s street dancing, the background music – evoking sounds of the jungle and the songs – catchy group numbers and emotional solos: just a taster of this feast of a show.
Jessica Swale has skilfully adapted Rudyard Kipling’s famous story for the stage with music and lyrics by Joe Stilgoe. It is directed by Kash Arshad with musical supervisor Matthew Malone and movement director Jennifer Kay.
The Jungle Book is a tale about a baby, called Mowgli, found by a pack of wolves. The wolf cubs persuade the elder wolf, Akeela to keep the baby, but in the ‘Law of the Jungle’ a baby needs two guardians to protect it from the evil. The two unlikely guardians turn out to be Baloo the bear and Bageera the panther, who struggle to work effectively together. Mowgli has a happy, carefree early life living with the wolves until Shere Khan, the tiger learns of his existence. The adventure begins as Mogli tries to evade Khan encountering other jungle beasts. Watch out for Snicker, Twitster and Larker the ‘cool’ street monkeys and Kaa the insecure snake, with her mesmerising eyes. There is loads of action and a lot of fun and humour. Baloo and Bageera, who overcome their differences in approach to caring for the mancub, now assist Mowgli in defeating Khan – with the ‘red flower’?! There are several hilarious references to ‘the watering hole’ as an analogy to the pub and the laws of the jungle that apply there! There are some exciting (maybe a bit scary) fight scenes and towards the end, a delightful discussion on crying!
The actors manage to capture the traditional story with contemporary themes such as diversity, belonging and identity. All their performances showed enthusiasm and versatility. Special mentions go to Jordan Pearson, Baloo, for his humorous timing (shades of James Corden!) Maya Dhokia, Mowgli, for her energy and passion; Darren Kuppan, for his threatening, powerful Shere Khan and hapless loser Twitster; and Elizabeth Green, Akeela, for her emotional scene when injured by Khan. Oh, I forgot to mention they can all belt out a beautiful tune!
This production will enthral everyone, audiences will leave with different memories but all will be lasting ones.
The Jungle Book is showing at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick until Sunday January 12th 2025
Further information can be found at www.theatrebythelake.com
