Le Livre de la Jungle

By Armand Kovacs on 27.04.19

I have many sweet memories from when I was a child, speaking of books. Personally, I was a Harry Potter generation but who could forget the classics like Huckelberry Fin and Tom Sawyer or Remi from “Sans Famille”? Well, yesterday evening we had a chance to go back to one of these classics at the Grand Theatre in Luxembourg: Le Livre de la Jungle.

This was a new take on a such beloved classic, a new vision of director Robert Wilson, the same person that directed “Two Lips and Dancers and Space” and “Oh les beaux jours”.

It was a very interesting approach, something very different from what we were expecting. He recreated the storyline as a whole to convey a new message directed towards the audience. The show had some very beautiful highlights such as the actress playing Bagheera (she had an amazing voice and it was a real pleasure listening to her), the actress playing the narrator elephant which really could insert you in the fantastic world of the Jungle Book as well as the monkey who did some very interesting acrobatic movements that were perfectly inserted in more static moments of the play. Another really interesting thing was blending live beatboxing, electric guitar, violin and trumpet into the musical repertoire of the show (a repertoire that was actually really well designed and chosen). Personally, I think it was the best use of beatboxing in a live performance show that I have experienced.

Although these, we had some issues with the main character who did not manage to reach our expectations neither vocally or acting wise and we were also disappointed by the Baloo character whom, despite having a very well rounded presence and character interiorization was offset by the way he spoke and sang which basically made us not understand anything he said.

In the end it was an interesting experience, a chance to see something new and fresh. It had its ups and downs, but I recommend attending this show with open mindness towards something fresh and out of the box.

You can find more information about the show as well as the people behind it here.

Next month at Théâtre de la ville de Luxembourg you can enjoy: Monsieur Linh and his child, Les Pêcheurs de perles, Leonce und Lena.