#11 The London-based Akram Khan Company visited Brno. (ENG)
The London-based Akram Khan Company visited Brno. Janáček’s theater was filled with elephants and giraffes over the weekend. Ten highly skilled dancers, portraying a pack of wolves, a troop of monkeys, and the Ká snake, showcased their dancing abilities. What was the first foreign production to be featured at this year’s Theater World Brno? You can find out in Alena Punčochářová’s review. Translated by Tereza Planetová.
Kipling’s The Jungle Book is popular amongst creators with its adaptations frequently performed on stage. No wonder this story also inspired choreographer and director Akram Khan, whose company visited the Czech Republic after ten years. However, in his interpretation we do not experience the traditional story by Kipling about a boy named Mowgli; Khan invites us to the near future and sends Mowgli, a lost girl, into a destroyed depopulated city.
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In 2030, Earth is struck by an ecological catastrophe. As a result of climate change, persistent rains erupted, which led to extensive flooding and a negative impact on the planet’s economic and political events. People were forced to move to higher locations, leaving cities to other inhabitants – animals. Ruined London became home to abandoned dogs that turned into wolves, laboratory monkeys and zoo and circus animals. A wolf pack created a hierarchy, headed by a Council. Mowgli, a young girl who fell from a departing raft, was saved from drowning by a whale. Bagheera, a wolf appointed by the Council, takes care of Mowgli. In her story, we discover the girl’s past beside the wild animals, their characters and bad experiences with humans. Baloo is a funny dancing bear from a circus, and Kha is a sneaky python from a zoo with strange abilities to see the future. Mowgli reveals conversations with her mother and completes the picture of ecological tragedy. In the end, everyone leaves destroyed London. Mowgli sets out to find her family and the animals leave to look for a new, higher-located home.
