Performance
Review
Anthony
Tamasi
In
the Lassiter Theater of Henry Clay High School, The Jungle Book cast members quickly brought me back to my
childhood, reminiscing upon the animated movie I watched as a kid, originally based
on the book by Rudyard Kipling. I was able to instantly immerse myself within
the excitement and jubilance radiating from the large cast. The performance was
able to add even more to my initial excitement with seeing this play from my
early formative years.
The
story opens with Mowgli (Viviana Ortiz), a young boy who was adopted by a pack
of wolves when he was just an infant. We fast forward several years and Mowgli
is still young, seemingly pre-teen, and the return of the tiger Shere Khan
(Yesmina Townsley), who hates men with a passion, threatens the “man-cub”
Mowgli. A black panther, Bagheera (Emily Spencer), offers to escort him, to the
nearest man village to ensure his safety from the dangerous tiger, as there is
no chance of his survival in the jungle. Mowgli and Bagheera encounter a
care-free bear named Baloo (Jordan Gross), who promises Mowgli that they can
stay in the jungle together. However, Baloo loses Mowgli several times and
Bagheera tells him that he is incapable of taking care of the child, and Mowgli
needs to get to the man village before Shere Khan finds them. Mowgli runs away
out of anger and eventually encounters Shere Khan. The tiger nearly eats
Mowgli, but Baloo comes to his rescue, nearly dying as he fights off the tiger.
Shere Khan flees after a fire erupts and lights a stick, tied to his tail, on
fire. Mowgli, Baloo, and Bagheera continue to walk and eventually come upon the
man village, where Mowgli becomes enthralled with a young girl he sees fetching
water, whom he follows back to the village.
What
really stole the show was the use of the lights on the set. The audience was
constantly kept aware of the theme of good versus evil. When Shere Khan
initially emerges, we see the tiger bathed in a dark red light, painting him
with emotions of fear from the audience. However, when Mowgli is dancing with
Baloo, the lights on them are light and cheerful, with green and no red.
Finally, we see blue tinted lights when Mowgli is walking alone, running away
through the jungle and talking to the vultures. Whenever Mowgli is upset, or
feeling down, the lights portray that emotion to the audience. The lights
reflect the mood of the play throughout, attempting to involve the audience on
an emotional level, as well as the physical level by the actors interacting
with the entire theater. When Mowgli runs away, he runs up the stairs in the
theater and out the door at the top of the auditorium, giving the audience the
feeling that he has abandoned not only Bagheera and Baloo, but us too.
The
cast was able to get creative with the costumes as well. Kaa (Anne Russell) was
my personal favorite, as the producers had actually provided a large snake
costume that Ms. Russell could control with a stick. This allowed the audience
to see Kaa coiling around young Mowgli, showing everyone that the jungle was
not a place for Mowgli and giving us that sense of imminent danger even from
those you trust.
However,
as much as I enjoyed the play, there was a lack of professionalism in some
parts. I cannot place my finger on any portion, and perhaps there was some
intent, but I felt as though Baloo especially failed to completely memorize his
lines and show emotion for the character he portrayed. I wanted to see a more
enthusiastic performance by the big bear more than others, and I feel that Mr. Gross
did not completely bring that.
Overall, I enjoyed
the performance not only because of the sentimental value I hold for this
story, but also because of the execution. I was pleased to see this play as
performed by the Henry Clay students, and I feel it was performed well enough
to allow one to reminisce and not worry about the play ruining their memory of
such an important work to their life. I would give this play a four out of five
(4/5).
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