The Jungle Book
after Rudyard Kipling
Adapted by Stuart Paterson
Directed by Nikolai Foster
At this time of year, 90% of all theatres in the country forego anything remotely resembling intelligent entertainment in favour of that perennial crowd-pleaser, the pantomime. For me, a little pantomime goes a long way, largely because I have no time for the music that usually accompanies it, and also because I'm not exactly a follower of today's celebrity culture, so the 'big names' that star in these shows frequently mean nothing, or almost nothing, to me. About once every ten years has been my average. My last outing was three years ago, but on that occasion, I was scant hours away from a very nasty bout of 'flu, and have only a hazy recollection of the evening, so when it was suggested that another panto might make a nice change, I was willing enough to go along with it. Instead of opting for one of the more standard forms, however, we chose the Citizens' Theatre's for the event, and they have a long-standing tradition of going off the beaten track for their Christmas offerings.
This year's show was The Jungle Book, in a production originally conceived for the Birmingham Stage Company in 2004, and, yes, it certainly wasn't the usual panto fare. There were some familiar points - a degree of audience participation, rather too much indifferent music - but the slapstick element (which can so often be tedious) was much reduced, and this was not the comforting fairy-tale world more common in this genre, or even Disney's laid-back take on Kipling's stories, but something rather closer to the author's original world.
The production didn't try too hard to make actors pass as animals. No fancy masks, just pelts for the wolves, or a shiny, skintight green dress for Kaa, while Shere Khan saw his actor (Lanre Malaolu) strutting his stuff in full rapper mode; ankle length striped fur coat, faux red leather trousers and plenty of bling. The jungle was evoked by strips of fluorescent lianas festooned everywhere, including right into the auditorium, and the Bandar-Log echoed those bright colours. While the small cast gave a good ensemble performance, the standout one of the evening for me was Elexi Walker as Kaa. She had one of the few genuinely funny moments of the evening, as she gets side-tracked from the hunt for the Bandar-Log and the stolen Mowgli by a delicious 'scent' wafting in from the auditorium. She then slithered her way across the first few rows of the stalls to fixate on a member of the audience, much to everyone's amusement, and was only to be turned away from her prey by Baloo (Obioma Uguala) and Bagheera (Jorell Coiffic-Kamall) inciting the rest of us to report that the monkeys had been disrespectfully calling her a 'fat, footless worm'.
If I have one real gripe about the evening - and it's a fairly serious one - it's about the music. First of all, it was, as already mentioned, mediocre (it was an original score, as opposed to the usual covers of recent hits that you get in most pantomimes). Secondly, none of it was well sung. And thirdly, the entire cast became completely unintelligible when singing. While I didn't necessarily expect to enjoy the songs, I find it especially aggravating when custom-written lyrics, designed to illustrate some particular plot point or character, are rendered inaudible by poorly sung and badly articulated performances. They were trying, but it definitely wasn't working.
Still, it made an interesting change from the broad farce and glitzy routine of the usual pantomime fare, where when you've seen one, you've really kind of seen 'em all. Though I doubt I'll be altering my decennial viewing pattern any time soon.
[Next : 10th January. Happy New Year!]
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