The Play “Mowgli. Good Hunting! " - Reviews, Society

The play “Mowgli. Good hunting! " Theater of Roman Viktyuk in a symbolic form openly shows what is happening hidden in the depths of the Unconscious.

Despite the fact that Kipling's work is addressed to children, the performance is interesting for an adult audience. And from a psychological point of view, Mowgli's story can be defined as a separation process. Separation is the separation from parents necessary to reach maturity. At first, Mowgli appears as a helpless cub in need of protection and care. As a result, he becomes an adult and independent, goes into adulthood. How it will develop, we do not know, but we understand that he himself will build it, make choices and bear responsibility for them. As befits a mature personality.

Mowgli's story is a metaphorical representation of the path of growing up and reaching maturity

Human children are completely helpless, they have a long way to grow up and achieve independence. That is why the family arose evolutionarily, the family as education is needed to protect the weakest, and these, of course, are children. Children can only grow up in a family - not necessarily their biological parents, but they need to be raised.

However, there is an interesting phenomenon. The so-called “ parental representation ” is formed inside the child. This is a complex construct that consists of many elements - a variety of images of the Parent and the experience of relationships with him. The mechanism is as follows: the child is surrounded by a variety of adults who participate in his upbringing, explicitly or indirectly. Their images are absorbed inside, "interiorized", as it is called in psychology. And it is from them that the parental representation is formed.

The internal image of the Parent, or parental representation, becomes voluminous, varied and even contradictory. After all, now the mother smiles at the baby, and then anger or sadness will appear on her face … The child, like a sponge, absorbs its surroundings. In the outer world, it is raised by real people, in the inner world - the symbolic image of the Parent.

The performance is symbolic, and in it we see the objectification of the internal parental representation: Mowgli is surrounded by certain figures, be they people or animals, and each of them symbolizes a certain part of the parental representation. Mother Wolf is a “protective mother”. The image of Bagheera carries a lot of sexuality, it is a meeting of a child with the femininity and sexuality of his mother. "Wise Kaa" symbolizes the wisdom and experience of the parent. Akela is the father as the head of the family, the leader. And Sherkhan is the “devouring parent”, the shadowy, negative part of the parent that poses a threat to the child. Once upon a time, at the dawn of humanity, cannibalism flourished, and in the harsh conditions of hunger, the parent himself could eat the child.

The modern parent can devour the child symbolically: without giving the right to separation. At the same time, he proceeds from his own interests, deficits, internal hunger: without a child he will be lonely and scared. We all remember anecdotes and jokes about Odessa mothers: “Do you want to get married? Do you want to make your mother an orphan?"

Therefore, the relationship between Sher Khan and Mowgli is the central intrigue. Only after having dealt with the "devouring parent" that hinders development, the child can separate and go into an independent adult life. This is what happens both with the matured Mowgli and with many of us during the period of separation.