Accessibility is too often treated as an afterthought in theatre. Director Sarah Brigham’s exquisite integration of British Sign Language – a first for Derby theatre – is a brilliant demonstration of its value as a core theatrical element in this gargantuan production of Rudyard Kipling’s moral tales.
Under Jon Beney’s movement direction and Daryl Jackson’s consultancy, BSL serves as an extension of a panther’s claw and a wolf’s howl as we clamber through designer Ali Allen’s 2D jungle gym. When Mowgli (Iniki Mariano), the man cub raised by wolves, is reunited with his mother, he can’t speak, but the physical form of communication carves a space of mutual understanding. In several touching moments, two actors – one deaf, one hearing – merge into one, handing their words between them as they sing-sign together. Becky Barry, Alexandra James and Emily Rose Salter give particularly strong performances here. It is a pleasure to see creative inclusivity as a priority. Even the caption display is leaf shaped, nestled among the tree-tops.
Perhaps because the stories come from a serialised collection, the plot stumbles forwards in fits and starts, and Neil Duffield’s script is strangely formal, with Yoda-like speech patterns unnecessarily difficult for the youngest in the audience. But the main cast piggy-back us through. Mariano is filled with cheek and fury as a limber Mowgli, searching for a home between the humans and animals. Ivan Stott gets us giggling as the rumbly, bumbly professorial bear Baloo, and Esme Sears is fiercely protective as prowling panther Bagheera. A community cast create chaos around them, first as candy-striped monkeys and scraggly wolves, and later as eager hunters under the orders of Dominic Rye’s sassy Sergeant Major.
Though the sometimes stodgy songs would be stronger double-speed, the multi-rolling folk band are brilliant, planting the delightful image of a carefree group of animals lolling around a double-bass deep in the heart of the jungle. When The Jungle Book tries too hard to get at the destructive darkness of its story as well as the light, it struggles to pull itself out of an overly earnest tropical panto. But at its best, it’s a riot: easy, playful, wild, fun.
At Derby theatre until 20 April.
