A little girl is washed up in a dilapidated landscape, inhabited by animals who decide to christen her Mowgli. Most of the plot of Kipling’s story then unfolds as we know it, but with a few twists for this post-apocalyptic vision; in place of King Louis, there’s a gang of escaped lab monkeys, whose unnerving movements and chattering echo the experiments performed on them. Kaa the snake is brought to life as a series of reticulated cardboard boxes; each carried by a dancer, they move sinuously as one. 

Khan’s characterisations are drawn entirely through movement in this way (with Tariq Jordan’s script spoken as voiceover by actors), and the whole cast rise to the challenge with flair. Wolves are low, sprawling creatures; Baloo the dancing bear a majestic, wobbling figure. In a stand-out performance, Max Revell’s monkey king is full of wiry, whipcrack currents flicking his body around. The whole cast are dressed identically, in grey trousers and red tops: a nod to the idea that we species are not so different from one another?

 But while the choreography does go far to identify each character, this uniformity, (combined with Michael Hulls’ constant low, cityscape night lighting) keeps the mood at the same level throughout. There’s no shift in colour or texture or atmosphere, even in the flashbacks to Mowgli’s past, beautifully drawn projections by YeastCulture. Perhaps this is part of Khan’s point. A future like this is relentless and dark: his ending certainly is beyond sobering. But this is a timely and worthy adaptation, that shows how classic texts can be reimagined as an emblem for our times.

Reviewed at Festival Theatre as part of Edinburgh International Festival.