The Royal and Derngate Theatre's production of The Jungle Book, currently at The Playhouse, is a courageous attempt to take on Kipling's tales. This is very much one for families and suitable for the youngest age groups. It seemed to please the younger audience well enough and they voiced their opinions throughout ('ha ha ha that was well funny', 'will the snake be real?' plus a cacophany of animal noises and rustling sweetie wrappers etc). I was really pleased to see that half the cast is made up of under 18s working alongside the older actors. Although without many
speaking parts, there were some of the most comical young antelopes, peacocks, monkeys and wild boar I have seen. I was interested to see that
Arnie Hewitt (Mowgli) has done much Youth Theatre work in the past and I can imagine rehearsals must have been lots of fun. The humour was also perfect for a younger audience - Baloo (Miltos Yerolemou) gets the laughs as a bumbling slap-stick genius and there are enough fart jokes to get us through to the toilet queues in the interval and beyond (Hathi is the elephant that 'trumpets from both ends'). Aimed at a younger crowd, it does have elements of pantomime, with the monkeys running around the auditorium terrorising the audience members and Baloo eating honey from a lady's handbag on the third row. Just don't make eye contact if you, like me, are a non-participatory audience member. The fun continues in the car journey home too, as the programme has join the dots and jungle quizzes to complete. I did them all.

It is a very daring project to take on, for as we all know, Kipling's tales are so fertile with life and rich in imagination. And how can you convey the hectares and hectares of setting in which the antics unfurl? Everyone was of course expecting a colourful and overgrown stage and we were not let
down. 'Council Rock' is a jagged movable contraption which allows the action to take place on two levels, frequently against the silouette of the full moon. Plus we get the joys of an Indiana Jones style 'lost temple' hidden among mulitlayered foliage flats and diaphanous green curtains. In terms of costumes, thankfully there was not a body stocking or Lloyd-Webberesque painted face in sight. The masks are beautiful frames of wicker showing only wiry outlines of features whilst still allowing the actor's face to be seen. Particularly applaudable was Hathi the Elephant's frame and trunk, and the honest use of a second person holding on to his shoulders as 'back legs'. The animalistic movements were not entirely convincing but well studied and I particularly enjoyed the scene where Baloo teaches Mowgli the jungle dialects - then it is people pretending to be animals pretending to be animals that are like people.

I had been hoping for some sing-alongs but the music, composed by Arun Ghosh, is an unusual new take. The monkies are not King of the Swingers but 'Kings of the Blingers' and form a hip-hop crew called Monkey Nation. Heads nodding like metronomes to 'Hip hop to the tree tops' they pose and break-dance and joke about being 'high' in the trees. All very amusing. Kaa the Snake (Georgina Roberts) is a great sensual seductress and her scenes are like Shirley Bassey, Kylie Minogue and Patsy AbFab all at once.

Part of me wishes they had made more of the story lines and fables included in the tales (how the Tiger got its stripes etc) and there is a greater deal
of depth and politics to be revealed in Kiplings work. But hey, its good and entertaining, nothing too strenous for all the little man cubs of the audience.

Rachel Lackie 13/7/2004