Performance Review

Review of the Jungle Book         

Last Friday I watched the play adaptation of the Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. It was performed in the Henry Clay High School theater by Henry Clay students. The play starts off with a boy named Mowgli living in the jungle with a pack of wolves. A tiger named Shere Khan learns of him and comes to kill him. A panther named Bagera is entrusted with returning him to the human village. Along the way he meets a bear named Baloo and becomes reluctant about leaving the jungle. All this time he is being hunted by Shere Khan. Mowgli manages to escape being killed and begins to realize how dangerous the jungle is. Eventually he sees a human girl and returns to the village.   

The costumes were a little inconsistent in quality. The vultures, elephants, and snake were all very detailed. The monkies and king louis didn’t really have anything on that would let you know what they were. The snake costume was my favorite. They had a pole attached to a stuffed animal snake's head so it could be moved around and they had another person move the tail around. This was a school play though so overall the costumes were very nice. 

The sets were pretty detailed. They had a smoke machine that which was something I have not seen in a school play before. They also had ropes for the monkies and other characters to swing on. The paint on the sets looked very nice. The lighting was pretty good. The lights were always focused on the main character in the scene. If there was only one character on stage there was a spotlight pointed at them. 

Overall I think this was a very solid performance. Some parts were taken out but that was due to time constraints. The ending left some questions unanswered. I personally think this was the most disappointing part about the play. If I were to give this play a rating id say 8/10. It was very good for a school play but there was some things they could have improved on.