Aviva Studios, Manchester
Avant garde director Robert Wilson’s adaptation of the classic tale prioritises surreal setups and atmosphere over family friendly narrative
What does it look like when the familiar story of man-cub Mowgli meets avant garde director Robert Wilson? For audiences familiar with Wilson’s work, the answer is exactly what you might imagine. Though the combination is a somewhat surprising one, this new adaptation of The Jungle Book has many of the distinctive features of Wilson’s theatre: a sculptural approach to bodies and light, painterly composition of the stage picture, use of repetition and fragmentation.
The emphasis is on atmosphere over storytelling. While there is a narrator of sorts in the shape of Hathi the elephant, the outlines of Rudyard Kipling’s stories are only lightly sketched. Instead of scenes, Wilson gives us a series of surreal impressions. Tiger Shere Khan reclines on a chaise longue smoking a cigar beneath a flickering exit sign. Animals gather among the piled-up carcasses of broken TVs. A monkey swings from a huge yellow tyre while Baloo the bear capers around the stage. This is all set to CocoRosie’s trippy musical backdrop, heightening the sense of strangeness.
