Jungle Book reimagined
Heath Ledger Theatre
The world is in the grips of climate change. Waters are rising and food is scarce. Rations are introduced, curfews are in place and even Google has gone under.
The devastating opening sequences of Akram Khan’s cautionary retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book are beautifully rendered in line drawn animation by Adam Smith of YeastCulture and make it clear this is not going to be a simple frolic in the jungle.
Instead animals roam among the urban decay in an abandoned city. Bears, panthers, snakes, apes, elephants and giraffes are left to fend for themselves having escaped from zoos or testing facilities. Into their midst appears a girl, herself a refugee, who has been separated from her family as they fled war and famine.
While the animals are initially divided on how to deal with the young girl — the majority want to kill her for all that she represents — the animal council decide she should live, symbolically elevating their own moral standards above generations of human beings that have brought the the world to its knees.
The child is named Mowgli and released into the care of Bagheera the panther, who teams up with Baloo, a former dancing bear, to care for her charge. While his history may be tragic, Baloo’s comical gestures and mannerisms provide some much needed levity to the production which can feel overly bleak at times.
Through her interactions with the animal world — the manipulative Kaa the snake (brought to life by dancers carrying carboard boxes), the caring Bagheera, and a whole host of power hungry apes — and her ruminations on her past, Mowgli comes to realise the fragility of the natural world and that she should protect it at all costs.
While the story sometimes gets lost in the telling the message is crystal clear, climate inaction is leading to our demise.
This point is reinforced by an old ghetto blaster, the head of the apes carries around, which is stuck on a loop repeating over and over Greta Thunberg’s speech from the 2019 UN climate action summit: “how dare you?” she spits over and over again.
Jungle Book reimagined features several moments of magic particularly in the projected animation that brings to life elephants on the move, a flock of mourning birds and conjures up Mowgli’s memories of home and her lost mother. There are also several powerful group dance sequences set to a multicultural score.
A stunning ocean scene towards the end of the production is devastating in its beauty and significance.
But Jungle Book reimagined is not a faultless production, character connection is often difficult to establish with everyone on stage dressed in the same faded red top and grey harem pants. The use of voiceover narration also causes disconnect between voice and character.
And while the ending is perhaps meant to offer some hope — ultimately Mowgli takes a leaf out of Thunberg’s book and sets off to educate humankind — as she floats away on a raft, her mission already feels somewhat futile.
At over two hours, Jungle Book reimagined is also overly long which somewhat dulls its pertinent call to action.
3.5 stars
Season runs until Feb 17.