Illyria Presents - The Mowgli Stories

Adapted from The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling

A young man emerges from the jungle and leads a Forest Officer straight to where the man-eating tiger has hidden. He summons a wild buffalo at will, and even commands a horse some miles away to deliver its rider to him.

How is he performing these incredible feats? He says he grew up in the jungle, speaks all the animals’ languages and learned their laws. He says that the wolves use their speed and skill to act at his bidding.

But can this be true? Mowgli’s REAL adventures, as told by Rudyard Kipling, are more extraordinary and a lot more exciting than the Disney cartoon.

Kipling fell out of popular favour in the second half of the twentieth century because he was misrepresented as an apologist for colonialism. The twenty-first century will surely see a huge
resurgence in his popularity since the values he actually champions are those of responsibility, tolerance of one’s neighbours even though they may be very different from oneself, and the wisdom to live in harmony with one’s environment rather than exploiting it.

In this brand new production, Illyria uses an ensemble chorus and a highly stylised performance technique combining masks, puppetry and song.