Synopsis
The play is about a struggle for existence for animals by the animals. The play narrates an inspiring story of how animals come together to save their
motherland from invasion of humans. Babbar Khan (The Lion) and his small army comprising of Cheetah, Monkey, Deer, Horse and an Elephant along with the other habitants of the wild rage a war against the Human atrocities and save their Jungle land. The play responds to the need for an idea of coexistence of Animals and Humans.
Director’s Note
After reading Junglenama the first thing that struck me, apart from its beautiful language and deep insight about the animals, was the dramatic plot. As theatre practitioners we could not resist the temptation of transforming the story of Junglenama into a theatre piece. To add to that, after reading the story one gets a deeper insight about the animals and feel the need of sharing this feeling.
While directing the play I thought using shadow puppetry along with the real characters would be much more fun and it would also mean altogether new form for us. We have tried to retain the wilderness of animal characters and not humanize them. This, we thought, is necessary as we are portraying their struggle for existence.
Today’s adults are far beyond changing themselves and have lost the strength to change things around them too. The hope that we see is in our youth (teenagers) and children. It is the right age to look at the world with a deeper meaning and affection. Hence we wish we can reach out to them with Junglenama.
