The Jungle Book – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

The Easter holiday’s production of ‘The Jungle Book’ commenced at the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse, headed by the super talented Artistic Director Joseph Meighan.

Following the success of last year’s ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ Ros Greenwood agreed to direct this imaginative production based on Rudyard Kipling’s eponymous collective works from 1894. Most of us remember the Walt Disney’s animated film from 1967 titled ‘The Jungle Book’ where we see Mowgli a human boy guided by the animal guardians, who is set on a journey of self-discovery whilst evading the threatening evil Shere.

Ros Greenwood’s production of ‘The Jungle Book’ is that of Stuart Paterson’s adaptation where this classic is brought to life with a cast who fills the stage with the voices and bodies of all the animals of the jungle. In this slightly pantomime style the cast tell the story about Mowgli the man cub saved by the wolves and is taught the ways of the jungle by Baloo the bear, again Mowgli must survive in the new environment and avoid the traps set by the evil Shere Khan and his associate.

Unlike the film, Stuart Patterson’s ‘The Jungle Book’ is rooted strongly with Kipling’s writings. The first stage production was at the Birmingham Stage Company in 2004, the production connects to the universal elements in human experience. Mowgli is a man in the jungle and a wolf in the village, so he has nowhere to go, the only thing he possess is his courage, independence, and free spirit depicting what life is actually like for most of us. Unlike the Disney film there is no happy ending, and it doesn’t have the Disney kind of uplifting songs that we are all use to, but it does have a degree of humanity and truth behind the tale.

Myles Ryan plays the role of Mowgli the man cub filled with innocence and wonderment of his life in the jungle, with mischief and bundles of energy he has no trouble convincing the audience he is a little boy in the jungle.

There are no catchy Disney melodies we all associate with the film animation of ‘The Jungle Book’ and I wondered how many children in the audience were waiting to sing along to ‘The Bare Necessities’ or ‘I Wan’na Be Like You’. I know my theatre companion aged 15 was a little disgruntled to hear songs she had never heard of such as: ‘Night Song in The Jungle’, ‘The Law of The Jungle’, ‘Road Song of The bandar-Log’, ‘What of The Hunting, Hunter Bold?’, ‘Outsong in The Jungle’ and ‘Mowgli’s Song/Red Dog’! The songs themselves are not memorable or particularly catchy for the younger generation but they do tell the story through the lyrics.

The set design was more fitting with the Disney theme we are all familiar with, where we saw a magnificent stage set of hanging trees and every aspect of a fantasy jungle you can imagine. Equally the costume design was just as creative and a huge credit to Mike Shaw and team as this aspect of the show was wonderful and extremely pleasing to the eye. Lighting Design and Operation by Geoff Scullard made the set come to life with such bright beautiful colours and subtle mood lighting for the more dramatic scenes, I particularly liked the intense red lighting as Shere Khan was about to slaughter the Mowgli.

It is clear the cast have worked extremely hard on this production, and I especially applaud the creativity of Kaa played by Eilidh Pollard where we see the use of puppetry effortlessly delivered by this talented lady.

I can’t help but feel a little disheartened and hoodwinked by this production, and maybe I should have researched a little more on whose adaptation it was as I was fully anticipating a version of ‘The Jungle Book’ I am so familiar with. To me personally I could not identify it as a family pantomime or an adult’s production it just seemed to fall very flat, and I left with neither feeling uplifted nor fulfilled.

Overall, there has been a lot of hard work put into this production and there are some great achievements from the creative teams, also the children in the audience did interact beautifully with the cast, but it did not hold my 15 year olds attention at all and she is an avid theatre goer. Please note that this is my personal review of the show and maybe my expectations were too high as I have always been wowed by anything Joseph Meighan has done with his team but this one just wasn’t for me.

The Jungle Book continues at the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse until 16th April, https://www.altrinchamgarrick.co.uk/shows/the-jungle-book/

Reviewer: Katie Leicester

Reviewed: 31st March 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★★