‘Jungle Book' inaugurates Serenbe Playhouse

At the end of Serenbe Playhouse’s playful adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book,” the orphaned “man cub” Mowgli decides to leave his forest adventures and return to civilization. So he sprints down a path under a canopy of trees, deep into the woods of this quiet Chattahoochee Hills community.

No need to “exit stage right” when you have 1,000 acres of pristine forest as your theater. Serenbe Playhouse is the latest project of this idyllic southside hamlet (population 200), which has a Disney-esque gleam and espouses a philosophy of energy efficiency, sustainable farming, land preservation and, of late, imaginative, site-specific thespian activities.

Brian Clowdus, the University of South Carolina graduate student who founded the theater and directed this inaugural production, has devised a delightful family show using a pre-existing treehouse tucked into the primeval landscape. Audience members meandering through the brush may be greeted by a human python coiled around a tree (see ya later) or a fetching panther lounging on a plank of a bridge spanning a creek bed (hey, gorgeous!). Everyone will be advised to avoid the man-eating tiger, Shere Khan, lest he decide to have you for lunch. (Yeah, right. He’s really a scaredy-cat.)

This “Jungle Book" follows the classic fairy tale paradigm, though it’s been winkingly tweaked to include ecology reminders involving a banana spiel and lots of audience participation gags. (When the Great Wolf says, “law of the jungle,” you’ll need to hiss like a snake, screech like a monkey, etc.)

An archetypal villain, Shere Khan (Joshua Waterstone, sounding a little Paul Lynde-ish) wants to hurt doofus Mowgli (Samuel Virgil Traquina), who has long been protected by the regal Great Wolf (Dasie Thames) and her jungle courtiers. Dressed in body stockings and sexy, Tarzan-style loincloths, the nimble actors wag their tail appendages, blink their long elegant eyelashes, preen like aristo-cats and engage in some very cool fight choreography and tumbling. When Mowgli, hungry child that he is, gets the munchies, he scarfs down a banana, tosses the peel and causes a monkey to trip. It's the perfect setup for a litterbug lecture and composting plug.

Clowdus' wonderfully clever amusement will tickle cubs and their keepers. He proves that Mother Nature can be a great collaborator, magician and trickster and that the glorious Serenbe setting can inspire mystery and awe -- maybe even a little itching and scratching. Certainly this is the first show I’ve ever attended where someone tapped me on the shoulder and whispered: “Sir, there’s a spider on your back.” (Hey, no harm done!)

On June 25, the playhouse opens the two-person musical “John & Jen,” followed by Joe Calarco’s all-male “Shakespeare’s R & J,” beginning July 16. It will be interesting to see how the community embraces this steamy, al fresco theatrical experiment. Based on my Saturday morning adventure with Baloo, Bagheera and Mowgli,  I can surely say I've been bitten by the Serenbe bug.