Writer: Yann Martel
Adapter: Lolita Chakrabarti
Director: Max Webster
Bursting into theatrical oceans via the high-flying Sheffield Theatres creative hot bed of the last few years, Life of Pi has reached the astronomical proportions theatre producers can only dream of. Based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel, later winning ten Oscars for Ang Lee’s film adaptation in 2013, you will be hard pressed to find many who do not have a vague inkling of the story of the tiger on the boat. A hit on the West End and Broadway for the last four years, Life of Pi now voyages on a year long tour with a month’s shore leave at The Lowry until early January.
Novel down and film aside, Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of this story of solitude and endurance becomes another beast itself from that on the page or on screen. Indeed, it is the beasts themselves, like the theatrical adaptations of War Horse or The Lion King, become the focal point and impressiveness for this visually stunning piece. As with such cleverly constructed and manipulated puppetry the mechanics of the beasts fade away into suspension of disbelief. Puppeteers, criminally, are best invisible and although always on display are never observed, moreover, manipulators of the beasts they control. Life of Pi is a spellbinding menagerie of theatrical magic.
In the novel Piscine Patel (Pi) is a sixteen-year-old boy growing up in India and whose family own and operate a zoo. In this production Pi is female and played by Tanvi Virami. Illness throughout the cast seems to have ruled out the first choice and understudy male options throwing Virami into a boat with a tiger. The gender of Pi is hardly integral to plot, hence the fluidity of the actor playing Pi is irrelevant. Thrown into the proverbial den (albeit tiger rather than lion) did not seem to faze Virami in the least who has had experience of covering the role before. Pronouns changed the show will go on and an impressive ensemble show it is.
Growing up in a zoo in India in the 1970s, Pi’s father drops a bombshell that the family (and zoo inhabitants) need to urgently emigrate to Canada due to “the emergency”. Political unrest and genuine fear force the family to load their life, like Noah’s ark, to lands anew, including the new star attraction and inexplicably named Bengal tiger Richard Parker. Shipwreck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, however, throws Pi and a handful of animals into a rescue boat into the middle of the ocean. A mischievous orangutan, a hungry hyena and an injured zebra stranded on a lifeboat might sound like the set up of a joke but it is deadly serious when they become stalked by an equally stranded and equally hungry Bengal tiger.
Life of Pi is a story of survival and solitude – a coming of age narrative and supernatural/psychological imagining of what might happen inside a mind if spending 227 days at sea without food or water. Like the novel it becomes ambiguous whether Richard Parker and the rest of the floating zoo are metaphor, symbolic or entirely imaginary. However, the theatrical version of Martel’s novel is very much about the impressive spectacle theatre makers can make. This is a show that is beautiful to watch. Under Max Webster’s overall direction, the fluidity of Tim Hatley’s design takes us from ocean storms to bazaars, but Finn Caldwell’s puppetry design and direction is the centrepiece of this production. Puppeteers neigh and whinny, growl and laugh as they manipulate their immaculately constructed beasts. It is worth the ticket price alone to see the puppets breath life.
Life of Pi is an ensemble piece in the true sense of the word. When not in character actors may be puppeteering an ear or a tail or changing the set. It is exciting to watch and the story zips along as ferociously as the tempestuous ocean.
Runs until 7 Jan 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Beastly spectacular
