THE JUNGLE BOOK. To 18 January.

Chester

THE JUNGLE BOOK
by Rudyard Kipling adapted by Richard Williams

Gateway Theatre To 18 January 2003
23,26-27,30 December 2.15pm & 6pm
28 December, 2-4,10-11,16-18 January 2.15pm & 7.30pm
7-9,13-15 January 10.15am & 2.15pm
BSL Signed 4 January 2.15pm
Runs 2hr 5min One interval

TICKETS 01244 340392
Review Timothy Ramsden 20 December

A version - and production - that has some success, but little ambition.There's a programme note that this is not the Disney version; unfortunately it's printed over a picture that is – or might as well be – a Disney animation still. For while this production can't beat Disney at its own big-bucks game, nor does it achieve a radical or distinctive approach to dramatising Kipling. There are some positive qualities: a certain streetwise feel, for one, but any originality is compromised by a need to easily please.

It is, at least, a monstrous liberty to take a story about a human child (boy in Kipling, girl in Chester: fair enough) brought up by wolves and virtually write Wolfdom out of the script. But that's fine if you're taking a line which accommodates monstrous liberties for some definite end. Yet no such end's in sight.

Then there's the major decision how much to play on various animals' human-related qualities. Some overall style's needed: it might use very full animal costume or very little, relying more on movement. This is the physically freer and potentially more dramatic option, if more demanding on cast and audiences.

Chester opts for a fair amount of fur but little sense of animal movement or human-like qualities. Mark Brignal bobs about with nervous amiability as Baloo the bear, Charlie Folorunsho's vengeful tiger could be any panto, or melodrama, villain setting themselves up to be hissed, and there's little except the programme to identify Duncan MacInnes' Tabaqui as a jackal.

It's hard to believe individual performers aren't up to it; more likely that the demands aren't made of them in adapter Richard Williams' own production – which credits a couple of choreographers but no movement director. The music varies, but the big moments are more naff than McNeff (this composer can produce stronger stuff).

This production's not a wash-out. A near full-house enjoyed themselves on the morning I went. There are things to enjoy. But there could have been so much more.

Baloo: Mark Brignal
Kaa: Suzanne Cave
Akela/Monkey: Michael Everest
Shere Khan: Charlie Folorunsho
Bagheera: Amanda Gordon
Tabaqui/Priest: Duncan MacInnes
Chill/Cobra/Mother/Narrator: Susan Swanton
Mowgli: Natalie Johnson/Charlotte Wakefield
Monkeys: Tyler Adams, Lauren Cain, Natasha Evans, Beth Falkingham, Victoria Hatt, Matthew Hoather, Yasamin Khostovan, Abigail Kirk, Rosy McMahon, Sarah Roberts, Nikki Stuart, April Sutherland, Jennifer Tyson, Shelby Williams

Director: Richard Williams
Designer: Janey Gardiner
Lighting/Projection: Arnim Friess
Sound: Kal Ross
Composer/Musical Director: Stephen McNeff
Choreographer: Sam Spencer-Lowe
Assistant Choreographer: Sascha Kane

2002-12-26 18:04:25