The adventures of the “man cub” transposed to the 21st century. In this reinterpretation of The Jungle Book, Akram Khan sounds the cry of an outraged nature and a planet on its last legs. Ambitious and spectacular.
“We think we own the Earth, but we are only guests on this planet, like all other species,” explains Akram Khan. The brilliant British choreographer, who danced the role of Mowgli in an Indian production at the age of 10, has never forgotten the lessons he learned from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book (1894). Now he reframes Mowgli’s journey through the eyes of a young climate refugee. Arriving alone in a deserted urban jungle where wild animals have taken over the streets, the child soon meets some unlikely allies. Combining dance, theatre, animation and video projections with Jocelyn Pook’s spellbinding score, this coming-of-age story performed by 10 exceptional dancers underlines the urgency of inventing a new world together.
