Akram Khan to reimagine The Jungle Book at Leicester Curve

Choreographer Akram Khan will revisit The Jungle Book next year version of Rudyard Kipling's classic book at Leicester Curve.

Khan, who as a ten year-old played Mowgli in Akademi's Indian dance production The Adventures of Mowgli, will direct an ensemble of ten dancers in a production that will tell the story "through the lens of today's children".

Written by Tariq Jordan, with dramaturgy by Sharon Clark and a music contribution by Anoushka Shankhar, Akram Khan's Jungle Book Reimagined will receive its world premiere at Curve from 2 to 9 April 2022.

The creative team includes lighting by Michael Hulls, visual stage design by Tom Scutt, animation by Naaman Azhari, projection by Yeast Culture, and film director Andy Serkis, who will help use visual technology to "turn the stage into a magical world that dives into the myths of today".

Akram Khan said: "The Jungle Book's story has always been close to me. Not only because I had inhabited the role of Mowgli as a young boy, but more because of the three deep lessons it held within it, that I have since carried with me all my life – the lessons of commonality between species, the binding interdependence between humans, animals and nature and, finally, a sense of family and our need to belong."