Award-winning Metta Theatre will present their smash hit production of Jungle Book at The Lowry Tue 29 August – Sat 2 Sept.
Fresh from an international tour Metta Theatre has collaborated with artistic directors Poppy Burton-Morgan and William Reynolds on a new version of Jungle Book using street dance, circus and spoken word.
Metta Theatre pride themselves on their powerful visual storytelling and exploration of multicultural stories often from a female perspective. In Jungle Book they follow Mowgli on her search for identity and belonging – vulnerable, isolated and trying to find her place in an alien environment. The story transcends boundaries and resonates with audiences young and old, urban and rural.
Poppy Burton-Morgan’s radical re-imagining of Kipling’s much loved classic sees Jungle Book transposed to a contemporary urban jungle of skateboarding wolves, street dancing monkeys, a beat-loving bin man Baloo and graffiti artist Bagheera. With choreography from acclaimed hip hop artist Kendra J Horsburgh, known for her work with Nicole Sherzinger, Peter Andre, Kenneth Branagh, Tini Tempah, Anna Straker, JUNGLE, Incognito, Dynamo and Melanie C.
Composer Filipe Gomes has created a beat-driven score using real world sounds of the city. Add to this designer William Reynolds’ trademark minimalism and an urban jungle is created – a stark forest of streetlamps disguising circus equipment on which these recognisably human animals cavort and contort themselves. The show uses street dance and circus to explore the search for identity and belonging in contemporary multicultural Britain.
Award-winning Metta Theatre are prolific theatre makers and masters of storytelling who combine circus, new writing and physical theatre forms to make challenging and richly layered work. Previous work using the multi-dimensionality of circus to unlock narratives includes Blown Away (2016 UK tour) and their adaptation of The King of Tiny Things (an award-winning circus show which toured nationally in 2015 to major venues and festivals (“effortlessly charming” – Exeunt). Recent new writing includes Mouthful at London’s Trafalgar Studios in September 2015 (Critics’ Choice, The Times), a response to the global food crisis from six of the world’s leading dramatists in partnership with six world-renowned scientists. Metta Theatre are supported by Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Jungle Book
Dates: Tue 29 Aug – Sat 2 Sept
Times: 7pm, Matinees Thu & Sat 2.30pm
Tickets: £20.50. Conc £4 off. Family ticket £68.
Age Guidance: 8+ (younger children will be admitted)
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