AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: The Jungle Book - The Garrick Playhouse, Altrincham. Greater Manchester.

The latest main-stage production at Altrincham's Garrick theatre is enjoying a longer than usual run for the Easter holidays. 'The Jungle Book' is an incredibly well-known and loved story for children and older children by Victorian novelist Rudyard Kipling, especially since the wonderful Disney film of the same name. Who doesn't "wanna be like you-u" etc..... and so with this in mind and heart I was happily ensconced in my seat at the theatre until I realised that this was not the play I was expecting it to be. I wonder then, just how many other patrons had come to see this with their family / children not realising it to be a completely different version from that familiar to us. 

This is a play by Stuart Paterson which sticks very closely to the original Kipling storyline, making Mowgli a mancub who once grown into a boy with a mind of his own, finds he no longer belongs in the world of the jungle, but doesn't fit in with the humans in the village either. The play has been given original music for this production by Peter England and Ros Greenwood, and sadly the music, despite it being appropriate to the narrative drive, is instantly forgettable and uninspiring, and fails to lift the songs from the stage across the apron front. 

The set design, again by Ros Greenwood - who also directed the play - was a strange composite affair which was half jungle, and half stage blocks and scaffolding. Stage left was devoted to a large set of black steps and podia with no attempt to 'jungleify' them, {why not make them into rocks?}, whilst a long walkway across the rear was more successful in being camouflaged, but a scaffolding square canopy on stage right also looked out of place in the middle of the jungle. Admittedly, these things were more successful when they were at the lost city or in the human's village. 

Myles Ryan played Mowgli with youthful zest, and Peter Birch relished the opportunity of being truly evil as Shere Khan. Sanjiv Joshi gave Bagheera a rather Abanazer-esque makeover, whilst Matthew Spilsbury's Baloo was sonorous and compassionate. Eilidh Pollard showed skill as a competent puppeteer as she handled her alter-ego Kaa with ease and slithery glee. 

I have to admit that I did not quite understand what director Ros Greenwood was aiming for in this production. Was it aimed at the children? Mostly it was yes, and my favourite moments this evening were watching and listening to the ad-lib heckles from a tiny tot on the front row! However, from a more mature perspective, this production was neither drama nor comedy, musical nor play, pantomime nor tragedy, although it did have elements of all these genres within which made for a rather clunky and mismatched presentation. And where monkeys can find carrots and bunches of grapes when in a jungle I shall never know...!

With flashy and colourful costumes, imaginative make-up, and a cast who have worked extremely hard to bring this production to fruition, it seems unfair to end the review on a downbeat; but sadly, from this reviewer's perspective at least, this play failed to tick all the boxes, and I left the theatre disappointed and unfulfilled. 

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall

on - 31.3.23