The Jungle Book

Craig Higginson, Rudyard Kipling, Craig Higginson

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781849435628
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Britisches Drama

From a version by Tim Supple From the novel by Rudyard Kipling Mowgli was still a toddler when he was lost in the jungle – his parents feeing the tiger, Shere Khan. There, Mowgli was brought up by wolves, and educated by the bear Baloo and the panther Bagheera.He was happy while growing up and learning the ways of the jungle –and his name was soon known amongst all the animals. But Mowgli'sgrowing fame provoked resentment and envy, and his life was soon threatened from all sides… First published in the late 1890s, Rudyard Kipling's two Jungle Books have enchanted generations of children and adults. Often describedas an allegory for the society and politics of the time, The Jungle Book has now been adapted by critically-acclaimed South African playwright, Craig Higginson. The play asks: Who is your family? Those who look the same as you or those who love and nurture you? Here, the tales become a powerful examination of an emerging democracy, and the forces that threaten it. Based on a version by the celebrated director Tim Supple, this adaptation was first staged at Johannesburg's Market Theatre in 2008. This powerful and magical version of a much-loved classic is as resonant now as it was when it first appeared – both within South Africa and beyond its borders.

1.

Music and drumming. FATHER WOLF and MOTHER WOLF appear at the mouth of their cave, which is in the side of a mountain. It is early evening. We can only see the eyes of the wolves in the gloom of the cave.

FATHER WOLF: (Narration.) It was a warm evening in the Seeonee hills when a wolf woke from his nap. He scratched, yawned and stretched his claws.

MOTHER WOLF: (Narration.) His wife lay with her long, grey jaws across her cubs.

CHIL the kite appears.

FATHER WOLF: Argh. It is time to hunt.

CHIL: Good luck, Chief of Wolves. Strong teeth go with your noble children.

FATHER WOLF: It’s Chil the kite. The eyes of the jungle.

CHIL: Shere Khan the tiger has shifted his hunting grounds. They say he’ll hunt among these hills until the next moon.

FATHER WOLF: He has no right! By the laws of the jungle, he can’t change his quarters without due warning.

CHIL: Be careful. I can hear him below in the thickets.

CHIL swoops off.

FATHER WOLF: (Narration.) From the river, they heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who has caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it.

(To MOTHER WOLF.) To begin a night’s work with that noise.

MOTHER WOLF: Ssh! It’s neither cattle nor buck he hunts tonight. It’s man.

The whine had changed to a sort of humming purr. It grows to a full-throated roar of a tiger charging. FATHER WOLF peers down to watch.

MOTHER WOLF: Did he miss?

FATHER WOLF: The fool had no more sense than to jump at a woodcutter’s camp fire. He burned his foot.

SHERE KHAN gallops about, the fire trailing from his paws. He disappears with a crash.

MOTHER WOLF: Something’s coming towards the cave. Get ready.

The baby MOWGLI is crawling up towards them.

FATHER WOLF: A Mancub! Look!

MOTHER WOLF: Is this a Mancub? I’ve never seen one.

MOWGLI has entered the cave and started to gnaw on a bone. The wolf cubs surround him.

FATHER WOLF: He’s altogether without hair. I could kill him with a prod of my paw. But see – he looks up and isn’t afraid.

SHERE KHAN , still limping, approaches the cave. FATHER and MOTHER WOLF step forward and become visible.

FATHER WOLF: (To SHERE KHAN .) Shere Khan does us great honour.

SHERE KHAN: A Mancub went this way. Its parents ran off. Give it to me, Father Wolf.

FATHER WOLF: Wolves only take orders from the head of their pack. The Mancub is ours. To kill if we choose.

SHERE KHAN: I am Shere Khan. Don’t speak to me about choosing.

MOTHER WOLF: And I am Mother Wolf. I say the Mancub shall not be killed. He’ll live to run with the pack and hunt with the pack. In the end, cattle-thief, he’ll hunt you. Now go!

SHERE KHAN: Each dog barks in its own yard. We’ll see what Akela and the pack say about this protection of Mancubs. The cub’s mine. He’ll come to my belly in the end.

SHERE KHAN leaves.

FATHER WOLF: It’s true that the cub must be shown to the rest of the pack. Will you keep him, Mother Wolf?

MOTHER WOLF: He came naked, by night, alone and hungry, yet he wasn’t afraid. Look, he’s pushed one of my cubs to the side already. Of course I’ll keep him. Lie still, little frog. Mowgli the Frog, I’ll call him.

MOWGLI: Goo.

FATHER WOLF: What will the pack say? I’ve heard of Mancubs being raised by wolves, but never in these parts. It’s something we have no memory of. I wonder what will come of it.

Music.

2.

FATHER WOLF: (Narration.) Father Wolf waited until the cubs could run a little. Then on the night of the pack meeting, held once a month under the full moon, he took the cubs, Mowgli and Mother Wolf to Council Rock – a hilltop covered with huge boulders and bushes where a hundred wolves could hide.

MOTHER WOLF: (Narration.) Akela, due to his cunning and experience, was the leader of the pack. Below him sat wolves of every size, shape and colour.

FATHER WOLF: (Narration.) There was very little talking at the Rock. If the cubs whimpered, Akela would call out:

AKELA: You know the law. Look well, wolves!

MOTHER WOLF: (Narration.) And the mother wolves would nudge their cubs into moon shadows to escape Akela’s gaze.

FATHER WOLF: (Narration.) Father Wolf brought forward the Mancub, Mowgli the Frog.

(To AKELA.) Venerable Akela. We’ve come to talk about the matter of our Mancub.

AKELA: The law is that if two members of the pack – two other than those who are raising him – speak for a cub, then that cub must be accepted. And protected by the pack. Who else can speak for this cub?

BALOO the bear stands up.

BALOO: The Mancub? I can speak for the M...