Akram Khan Company and Leicester’s Curve Theatre have announced that the choreographer’s new work will premiere at the theatre from the 2nd to the 9th April 2022.
With tickets going on sale in the coming months, this reimagining of Jungle Book directed and choreographed by Akram Khan will be written by Tariq Jordan, with dramaturgy by Sharon Clark, and a music contribution by Anoushka Shankhar. It is set to feature a company of ten dancers.
The creative team involved with the production is also set to include lighting by Michael Hulls, visual stage design by Tom Scutt, animation by Naaman Azhari, projection by Yeast Culture, and with the insight of film director Andy Serkis.
This new version of the story of Mowgli will do so through the eyes of a refugee caught in a world devastated by the impact of climate change. They will tell the story of how this child will help us to listen again, not to our voices but to the voices of the natural world that we, the modern world, try to silence.
Talking about this new production Akram Khan said: “The Jungle Book’s story has always been close to me. Not only because I had inhabited the role of Mowgli in an Indian dance production as a young boy, but more because of the three deep lessons it held within it, that I have since carried with me all my life – the lessons of commonality between species, the binding interdependence between humans, animals and nature and, finally, a sense of family and our need to belong. We are now living in unprecedented and uncertain times, not only for our species but for all species on this planet. And the root cause of this conundrum is because we have forgotten our connection to our home, our planet. We all inhabit it, we all take from it, and we all build on it, but we have forgotten to return our respect for it. So I believe that we must make changes from the grass roots up if we are to see a brighter future. And so I feel compelled to share the story – lovingly known as The Jungle Book – with children and adults from all cultures, in order to re-learn what we, as a species, have so conveniently forgotten. And I believe that the strongest and deepest way to tell this story is through the magic of dance, music and theatre.”