What does it seem like when the acquainted story of man-cub Mowgli meets avant garde director Robert Wilson? For audiences aware of Wilson’s work, the reply is strictly what you may think. Although the mix is a considerably stunning one, this new adaptation of The Jungle Ebook has most of the distinctive options of Wilson’s theatre: a sculptural strategy to our bodies and light-weight, painterly composition of the stage image, use of repetition and fragmentation.
The emphasis is on environment over storytelling. Whereas there’s a narrator of kinds within the form of Hathi the elephant, the outlines of Rudyard Kipling’s tales are solely calmly sketched. As an alternative of scenes, Wilson offers us a sequence of surreal impressions. Tiger Shere Khan reclines on a chaise longue smoking a cigar beneath a flickering exit signal. Animals collect among the many piled-up carcasses of damaged TVs. A monkey swings from an enormous yellow tyre whereas Baloo the bear capers across the stage. That is all set to CocoRosie’s trippy musical backdrop, heightening the sense of strangeness.
Whereas that is billed as a household present, I discover myself questioning who it’s actually for. The intense colors and high-pitched shrieks and squeals of the animals have an virtually Teletubbies power, tapping right into a childlike high quality past language. However in different methods this looks like a really indirect, grownup piece, with few concessions to narrative readability. What little verbal storytelling we do get is usually exhausting to make out over the music – maybe a sound concern, maybe a deliberate extension of the baffling, dreamlike temper.
There are imprecise environmental undercurrents and strategies of a extra sinister, human-influenced jungle than we’re used to seeing – the smashed-up TVs, the tyre, mentions of warmth and drought. However any want for a contemporary tackle Kipling’s story is at odds with how Wilson works. Aesthetically, his remedy of this materials is hanging, producing a sequence of undeniably stunning and exact stage photos. Judged as a family-friendly theatrical expertise, it’s much less satisfying. However that is actually a Jungle Ebook not like another you’ll see.
