When Yann Martel wrote the mega selling Life of Pi he probably thought it too technically challenging for it ever to become an Olivier winning play, but thanks to the magic of puppetry this epic tale of one man lost on a raft with only a Bengal Tiger for company really works onstage.
Life of Pi was such a hit with over ten million readers worldwide that then U.S. President Barack Obama wrote to Martel describing his novel as ‘an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling.’ Obama didn’t specify which God, although most deities get a namecheck here, and you don’t need to believe in a higher power to enjoy Life of Pi. The former President was spot on about the storytelling as aside from the forest of allegories this is a rip-roaring theatrical experience, albeit one with real depth.
It’s the seemingly fantastic tale of young Indian boy Pi who after a shipwreck finds himself marooned in the Pacific on a raft with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a massive Royal Bengal Tiger curiously named Richard Parker. On his long voyage back to civilisation there are many dark moments as he tries to keep Richard from eating him, but what is the real story?
Lolita Chakrabarti’s punchy adaptation of Mantel’s occasionally flabby prose poses some big questions about what people in desperate circumstances will do when one wrong move might be fatal, so is Richard really a manifestation of Pi’s ID helping him process the extremes he had to go to in his battle to survive? What do the other animals represent? What price Pi’s survival? And can you ever come back after staring into the moral abyss?
Big questions, or you can just sit back and watch a team of puppeteers deliver a masterclass in making inanimate objects come to life. Richard Parker is a thing of beauty as a team of three breathe life into him to the point you think he might leap out in the audience, but after a while the skill of all the puppet masters, who also voice their animals, means you simply forget they are there, which anyone who has endured bad puppets know is no mean feat.
Of the humans RADA trained Divesh Subaskaran makes an impressive professional debut tackling the complexities of Pi’s mythmaking with great empathy tracing his evolution on the raft from callow youth to a man.
Life of Pi may or may not be about God, but what it does do is ask that existential question – just what would you do to survive? On a troubled planet it is a question many people have to answer every day just like Pi, and this complex piece offers no easy answers, but it certainly makes you think long after the final curtain call.
Life of Pi is at Bradford Alhambra until Saturday 11th November. To book 01274 432000 or www.bradford-theatres.com
Reviewer: Paul Clarke
Reviewed: 7th November 2023
North West End UK Rating: