The Concrete Jungle Book at Pleasance Theatre

[Ad- gifted experience] Dann and I were very excited to attend another play, especially as The Concrete Jungle Book was in a new theatre we have not attended before; Pleasance Theatre. Pleasance is very interesting; above a large bar. Inside, they have their own bar, and have tables instead of seats. You can order snacks and drinks right to your table, or grab them from the bar before going in. There is a main area in front of the stage, as well as an elevated area, with various sizes when it comes to the tables themselves. The space felt great!

The stage was a bit smaller than we have previously seen, but I will come back to that later. When we entered The Concrete Jungle Book, there was actually a DJ currently playing music. Right before the show started, this DJ became a hype man, who then continued to play music for the entire performance, as well as hype up whenever we were meant to clap. It brought a lot of fun to the atmosphere of the venue. When it came to the play itself, it was also really impressive!

The performance I saw had the main actor, Mo, switched right before the show (due to injury), and we wondered what that meant for the performance, but Lauryn Louise did an amazing job and you could not even tell that they were filling in! The Concrete Jungle Book is a performance based on The Jungle Book, but far more modern. Mo, a child who has been orphaned, has hit the age where she can no longer stay at the orphanage. Her brother is willing to adopt her, but before he can, she leaves the orphanage, feeling abandoned, and starts a life on the streets. An older women who has spent her life on the streets, addicted to honey, took her in and taught her the rules of the concrete jungle, while her brother still looked for her.

This performance had a lot of hip hop singing numbers, backed by the DJ and band, which brought a lot of character to the show. The actors had amazing voices, and were very good at singing, it was such a talent filled play! The stage, as I mentioned, was kind of small – with a platform and some stairs, so there is an upper bit and bottom bit, but what surprised us was that the stage spun! Often with actors on it, still preforming, and moving around with the rotation of the platform. It was very interesting to watch.

The Concrete Jungle Book showcased a lot of different types of homeless people; thugs, people who have been homeless for quite some time, homeless disabled veterans, and homeless young people. All of them are stuck in this ecosystem and have learned to live there, surviving day to day, despite the difficulties. Mo’s brother spends the duration of the play meeting these people, trying to find his sister, who has a head for getting into trouble as the opportunity came. After a fight, she left her guide in Concrete Jungle, then became apart of a dangerous group who seemingly sell drugs, which is a hard thing for her brother to get her out of. The ending is open ended, one that can pull on your heart, and one that is meaningful.

We really enjoyed this performance of The Concrete Jungle Book. It’s such a thoughtful, important play, with so much meaning and reality placed into it. Dann is a big fan of The Jungle Book (which I have not seen before) and he felt that the way they interpreted the animals into the characters were very fun and interesting, with the snake being a homeless war veteran that spoke in a strange, snake-like way, wanting them to guide him to the top of a building in exchange for information. He felt it was such a modern and important take, and I look forward to attending this theatre again.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!