In 1893, when Rudyard Kipling wrote his first Mowgli the "man cub" story, his work was shaped by a dozen years on the Indian subcontinent, but also by a warm view of English imperialism.  Sociopolitical relics aside, the two Jungle Book anthologies remain popular with schoolchildren; indeed, the Mowgli narrative has been adopted as a kind of guiding mythology for the Cub Scouts of America.  Of course, many of us grew up on the 1967 Disney animated version, which strayed from Kipling's plot but offered both "The Bare Necessities" and a quartet of mop-topped vultures intended to remind us of the Beatles.  (Indeed, the vultures were to be voiced by the Beatles, but John Lennon nixed the idea and advised manager Brian Epstein to call Elvis instead.) 

Now Olympia Family Theater gives us Seattle playwright Edward Mast's 1982 adaptation, Jungalbook, directed by Peter Kappler on a sprawling jungle gym.

Why is Jungalbook spelled that way?  Well, for the same reason Mast has Baloo teaching "the Law uv the Jungal to baarcubs, wulfcubs, all uv'em"-namely, because animals can't spell English properly.  Or something.  By the way, I learned there are, in fact, bears in India; Baloo is a sloth bear, Melursus ursinus.  There are also documented cases of human babies raised by wolves, but sadly, no dancing monkey kings who sing like Louis Prima. No jungal's perfect.

The house opens, and boom, it's welcome to the jungle thanks to Aaron Ping's sound design, Jon Tallman's gorgeous light show and Mike Rathke's multilevel set.  Rathke's a metalworker by trade, the co-owner of Studio 23.  His abstract jungle stage is a kid's Saturday-afternoon dream, so much so that a polite usher had to guide kids away from it during intermission.  (Liability issues, don't ya know.)  Tallman eschews the expected greens and blues to saturate Rathke's playground in rich fall colors.  The scrim-like translucency of parts of the set allowed for poetic entrances, as if the characters dissolved ominously into the scene.  Throughout the play I was intrigued by its percussive musical score, which didn't strike me as Indian or even African but evoked animal life in the wild just the same:  "Nature, red in tooth and claw."

The through line of this adaptation, compiled and squished into a child-sized hour and change, struck me as busy and perhaps even confusing for preschool attention spans.  No one minded.  Both children and adults were charmed by Becky Scott's non-literal costumes and Christina Collins' elaborate makeup designs.  As for the cast, I was particularly struck by the rumbling presence of Scott Benson as Bagheera the panther, Bruce Jay Fogg's agile humor as Perchy and Chil, and Stella Martin's lithe, sine-waving Kaa, the hypnotic serpent.  There's room for genuine acting method in children's theatre, but it has to be accompanied by physical dexterity and imagination.  We got that, plus a credible Mowgli in Nick Taylor.

I think the first OFT show I saw was Reviving Ophelia, a "kids' show" that annoyed me by dropping a handful of F-bombs.  "It's Olympia Family Theater," I was reminded, "not Olympia Children's Theater."  In other words, OFT wants to produce material that appeals to adults as well as children, whether aesthetically, thematically, or both.  More often than not, it succeeds.  This is one of those times.  Jungalbook is a moody excursion into an absorbingly dense, even Darwinian playground.

[Black Box Theate - The Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts at SPSCC, Jungalbook presented by Olympia Family Theater, through April 11, 7 p.m. Thursday-Friday and Saturday, April 10, 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, suitable for ages 8 and up, $8-$15, 2011 Mottman Road SW, Olympia, 360.754.7711]