JUNGLE. bac to 10 March.
London
JUNGLE
by Robert Messik, from Rudyard Kipling.
Labyrinth Theatre at bac studio 1 To 10 March 2002
Tues.-Sat. 7.30pm Sun. 5.30pm
Runs 1hr 10min No interval
TICKETS 020 7223 2223
Review Timothy Ramsden 24 February
No nudity, swearing or obscurity – this is a Jungle Book adaptation deserving adult attention in the best sense.The story may centre on wolves but it's often the monkeys we remember – and here they are, squabbling, squealing and occasionally going bananas over – well, bananas. Predictable creatures, monkeys.
They also have a human-like penchant for storytelling and three of them recreate the story of Mowgli, boy child brought up by wolves under the law of the jungle who then returns to his human mother and her jungle-wary civilisation. Kipling declared East and West were a twain never destined to meet; here, there's as firm a division between mankind and other creatures.
Through their strongly physical account of Mowgli's story Labyrinth explore the alienation experienced by someone divided between two cultures. Though the multiple-role playing by the energetic acting trio occasionally produces some strain as we try to keep up with character changes through lightning cloak-doffing, voice pitching and posture shifting, the production and cast generally excel in making clear the scope for political intrigue in the jungle kingdom.
It has its Council Rock parliament, its vengefully angry rebel in the lame tiger Shere Khan, and internal power struggles; the play creates a political scene as varied and uncertain as that of Shakespeare's warring nobles. Our species has just added language to articulate, and complicate, the intrigue.
The animals have a finer dignity than the village people, who are little beings praying to God as a shield against their becoming prey to the jungle creatures. When Mowgli follows the defeat of Shere Khan with the savaging of the community which plans to sacrifice his human mother, the struts of Caroline Corrie's set collapse. Human kind cannot bear very much natural reality.
Very occasionally the script struggles. 'It is OK,' is a strangely modern idiom for the jungle. More often the dialogue has a direct force, as with Mowgli's defence of the ageing wolf leader, 'You will not kill Akela. Do you understand me?' But it's the lean clarity of the actors' physicality and the surprise of finding in Kipling the ultra-current theme of a mind displaced between communities that makes exceedingly good theatre.
Cast:
Caroline Corrie
Robert Messik
Matthew Reynolds
Director: Laura Farnworth
Designer: Caroline Corrie
Lighting: Helen Mugridge
Music: Olivier Bessaignet, Clement Fung, Julia Kirby
2002-02-25 13:00:32