From Budapest With Hatred and Love

By Roland Finger
Staff Writer

This is the world premiere of the Hungarian version of The Jungle Book in English, adapted from the Kipling classic by the blazing Budapest jazz artists Laszlo Des, Peter Geszti, and Pal Bekes. Since 1996, the musical has won national acclaim in Hungary, and it was translated into English specifically for Director Jim Cermak’s Gooseberry Park Players.

The story about an orphan child in India, Mowgli, adopted by animals, has passed into comic books, cartoons, opera, and films, the most famous of which is the animated Disney version.

But now the Hungarian Jungle Book places even more emphasis on learning the laws of jungle life, combining tough Darwinian lessons with moral responsibility. Mowgli’s serious education is brought to us with catchy songs, dances, and jokes.

The play builds on parallels between the animal and the human world. Opening with Shere Khan, the man-eating tiger, invading a campsite of people engrossed in prayer, the play shows that some creatures can represent cold, indiscriminate slaughter. The father dies while trying to protect Mowgli.

In his haste to kill the boy, Shere Khan falls into a fire pit, injuring a hind paw, giving Mowgli the chance to scurry into the bushes. Later in the play, the harsh, power-hungry human hunter, Buldeo, displays how some people can be a lot like Shere Khan, showing no kindness or respect for others.

The play’s second scene portrays wolves performing rituals that are akin to the human campfire scene in which people prayed for prosperity. The wolves initiate their cubs, preparing them for their future in the pack.

When the wolf leader, Akela, introduces Mowgli as his adopted son, there is discord. Why should a man-cub be allowed into the pack? The cut-throat lawyer of the jungle, Shere Khan, enters, creating even more strife. Solitary Shere Khan has a hatred for humans because they can challenge his authority, but he is opposed by the animals who want to foster social ties and a sense of fair play.

Akela explains that he took the man-cub because he felt pity for him. Later in the play, Mowgli’s mother figure, the black panther Bagheera, will say that she sticks up for Mowgli because of love. Some animals know a family feeling that transcends selfish interests.

Akela wants the pack to back him up, but the law of the jungle requires that there be two supporters, and no other wolf is interested. The rhymester bear, Baloo, steps forward to support the boy, promising to be his teacher, and Bhageera seconds the motion, offering a gift to save the boy’s life, a dead cow for the wolves. This round has been won.

Years pass, and Bagheera cannot stand that Baloo has been so heavy-pawed in disciplining Mowgli, setting down the law by beating the young man. We are given the impression that Baloo has hit Mowgli for years as part of his education, but Mowgli has become skilled in the animal languages and knows the law of the jungle quite well.

It’s basically an abusive teacher-student relationship, containing old-fashioned tough love from a hard-as-nails patriarchal figure. But what do you expect if you are raised by wolves and a bear? Does the play suggest that modern society is too soft on kids? Do we need to revive the rod to avoid spoiling the child?

There is the inevitable rebellion against the father bear figure, and this comes from talking to the unsavory jungle element, monkeys, anarchic crazy animals that kidnap Mowgli and want to make him their king. They are reckless and wild, almost as if they are drunk, and for a while, Mowgli is pleased with them, but they are bullies under it all because they will not let him leave.

Because the monkeys sing in rap, they are racialized more than the other animals, and this could be seen as offensive. But I don’t think our Hungarian playwrights meant it this way. We are mainly supposed to notice that the monkeys do not prize sacred rituals and education.

The shiny crown that Mowgli received from the monkeys becomes an object of obsession, a treasure, for some lawless men who kill each other to acquire it. It’s as if they are pathetic versions of Shere Khan because they do not really believe in any higher moral codes. They merely want to gain power. Shere Khan still wants Mowgli’s life and succeeds at displacing Akela as the leader of the wolf pack.

Baloo too has reached old age and leaves to die. It’s the law of the jungle, and it gives the message that death from old age should be met with graceful acceptance. There are no machines to hook these animals up to. The play almost gives the impression that euthanasia could save society a lot of trouble.

Budding romance soon appears in Mowgli’s life, in the form of the young woman, Toona, but there is a problem because the head-honcho hunter of the human tribe, Buldeo, owns her, having paid ten gold pieces to her parents. Apparently, human laws are often used to satisfy mere greed, power, and lust. Competing against Buldeo to be the first to kill Shere Khan, Mowgli succeeds, and his victory over Shere Khan also leads to the truth about Buldeo’s cowardly and greedy heart.

Because Toona loves Mowgli, he’s ready to “go human.” By giving Buldeo the tiger skin that is worth 100 gold pieces, Mowgli pays ten times the amount needed to liberate Toona. But we don’t get the impression that Mowgli has purchased a wife. He has purchased a life of freedom for Toona in much the same way that Bagheera gave a cow so that he might live.

Mowgli finds acceptance through the love of a woman, and the mother figure, Bagheera, is left on the outside. It’s a classic story of maturation and inevitable separation from parents.

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If You Go

What: The Jungle Book
Where: Concordia, Comstock Theatre
When: July 20-24, 7 pm; July 24-25, 1pm
Info: 218.299.3314