Stage: Animal magnetism

AKRAM KHAN COMPANY
Jungle Book Reimagined
director-choreographer Akram Khan
writer Tariq Jordan with Sharon Clark
dancers Lucia Chocarro, Tom Davis-Dunn, Harry Theadora Foster, Thomasin Gulgec, Max Revell, Matthew Sandiford, Pui Yung Shum, Fukiko Takase, Holly Vallis, Vanessa Vince-Pang, Jan Mikaela Villanueva, Luke Watson
composer Jocelyn Pook • animation Adam Smith, Nick Hillel
sound Gareth Fry • lighting Michael Hulls
Sadler's Wells, London • 4-15.Apr.23

Mixing dance with theatre, this mesmerising physical production takes Rudyard Kipling's classic stories and places them into the near future, redefining both the settings and characters to deliberately add present-day resonance. Akram Khan inventively stirs animation, music and spoken word in with viscerally charged movement to reveal timely themes that carry a powerful punch. So even if the dialog and storytelling are overstated (perhaps to reach a younger audience), it echoes an important message about the connections between humans and nature.

The story is now set when rising sea levels have forced humans to abandon cities, which have been repopulated by animals that have escaped from zoos, circuses and labs. When she falls from a refugee raft, Mowgli washes up in one of these cities and is adopted by a pack of bickering dogs. A human hunter is prowling the landscape, and they need her to help them avoid him. Mowgli also befriends Bagheera, a formerly pampered panther, and ex-dancing bear Baloo. When Mowgli is kidnapped by the Bandar-log, escaped lab monkeys who long to become more human, Bagheera and Baloo turn to the python Kaa to rescue her.

Dressed in red vests and grey harem pants, the dancers become various characters using physical posture, moving in rhythm to their dialog. Khan's demanding choreography is athletic and of course animalistic, mixing acrobatic movement with dance to create a strikingly vibrant atmosphere, shifting through encounters that are tender and violent. Eye-catching and surprising, the scenes feature both individual moments and some particularly gorgeous group numbers. Along the way, some performers emerge as standouts, most notably Thomasin Gulgec's loose-limbed turn as the enthusiastic, warm-hearted Baloo.

A complex audio mix includes music, dialog and media clips, while the on-stage performers are surrounded by strikingly rendered lighting and projection, including animated characters who interact with the dancers. The effect is magical, both dazzling visually and strongly emotional in the way the familiar story emerges from a fresh new angle. This is a beautiful collaboration between a range of talented artists who have found creative ways to work together. So if the voiceover sometimes gets preachy or obvious, there's plenty of beauty to engage with on a variety of levels. And it leaves us with some new thoughts about the impact we have on our planet and how finding common ground is the only hope for a future.

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photos by Ambra Vernuccio • 5.Apr.23