Look closely at almost any aspect of The Lion King and a global inspiration will reveal itself. The most obvious example is director Julie Taymor’s handcrafted puppets, which deliberately expose the puppeteer and draw strongly on bunraku, a Japanese theatrical form that originated in the 17th century. Even Rafiki, the mandrill, who invites us into Simba’s story, is based on traditional African shamans. And that’s just for starters …
The show’s influences are diverse and global, yet they’re all down to the vision – and extensive travels – of Taymor. Taymor was the first woman to win a Tony award for direction of a musical, but long before she was a theatrical record breaker she worked in avant-garde, ritualistic and experimental theatre. After graduating from university, she travelled through Europe and Asia, setting up a theatre company in Indonesia at the age of 22. It’s during these formative travels that Taymor encountered many of the techniques embedded in The Lion King. In Japan she learned about shibori, a historic dying technique that you’ll see in costumes throughout the show, while in Indonesia she was inspired by wayang and topeng, forms of Indonesian dance in which the performers wear masks and ornate costumes to represent folkloric characters.
What you see in The Lion King, however, is markedly different from these original techniques. “I’m not doing bunraku or wayang kulit. Those are traditions you have to be immersed in to master,” says Taymor. “They’re part of local cultures, history and religion, and I would never trespass on those lines. That’s not what I’m doing. But those fundamental techniques – the idea of a light that causes a shadow on a screen – those belong to the world.”
More than 20 years after its Broadway premiere, The Lion King has been seen on every continent barring Antarctica. Every once in a while, says Taymor, a new host country might inspire a tweak to the show. “When we played in Shanghai, I added the trickster monkey [seen in the musical number I Just Can’t Wait To Be King]. I designed a new costume and we used a fabulous Chinese acrobat in the tradition of Peking opera,” she says.
For Taymor, one of the most powerful cultural influencers in The Lion King’s creative team is Lebo M, whose African rhythms and chorales infuse the musical with a “kind of power and grace” and are the soul of the show. Just as important as the music, however, is the language used in the show’s libretto. “I wanted the languages to remain in the original dialect – and not English – as much as possible because it’s a gorgeous sound. I think the audience is able to appreciate language as music – not just something that tells people what is going on,” says Taymor.
As much as The Lion King showcases artistic influences from across the globe, it’s also a celebration of theatre in its very purest form. There’s a simplicity to the design, says Taymor, that draws on ancient spiritual practices. “It’s the transparency: the idea that you’re seeing how a puppet or mask is being operated. It’s exciting and it’s also spiritually fulfilling.”
“When you see the puppets being manipulated, it moves you. You’re reminded of those early shamans, who used their hands to make shadows against the wall. Even back then, in the cave, the audience would look past the firelight and see the ‘real’ creatures revealing themselves on the wall behind,” says Taymor.
The sun that lights up The Lion King is a similarly spiritual experience. It’s a moment, says Taymor, that represents a shared willingness to believe. “When the sun rises against that orange backlighting it’s initially just a pile of silk and sticks,” she says. “But there’s a small split between the wooden slits, and the natural draft in the theatre … makes the fabric tremble and move.”
The audience knows it’s just fabric and sticks, says Taymor, yet they’re willing to believe it’s more. “That’s what makes it spiritual, because it’s the human beings themselves who are animating these dead pieces of fabric, cloth, plastic and wood. And that’s the very essence of magic.”
The Lion King is at the Lyceum Theatre, London, and on a nationwide tour. Learn more about the show at thelionking.co.uk
