LIFE OF PI by Martel, Novelist-Yann Martel, Playwright-Lolita Chakrabarti, Director -Max Webster, Set and Costume Designer - Tim Hatley, Puppetry and Movement Director - Finn Caldwell, Puppet Designers - Nick Barnes & Finn Caldwell, Video Designer - Andrzej Goulding, Lighting Designer -Tim Lutkin, Sound Designer -Carolyn Downing, Composer - Andrew T. Mackay, Dramaturg-Jack Bradley, Sheffield Theatres,Tour 2023, UK, Credit: Johan Persson/
Life of Pi is one of those blockbuster books that seemed impossible to make work on stage, but Lolita Chakrabarti’s pacey adaptation keeps in Jann Martel’s mediation on the power of faith along with all the dramatic set pieces that make it such a good yarn.
It opens in a Mexican hospital room as an Indian teenager Pi recounts his 200 plus day battle for survival after the ship transporting his father’s zoo animals to a new home in Canada goes down in the Pacific. According to Pi he shared his life raft and battle to live with a 200 pound Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker…or did he?
Chakrabarti doesn’t flinch from the spiritual nature of Mantel’s text that namechecks most of the major religions, but cleverly weaves in the darker side of our psyche in a fable that is much about what lengths any of us would go to so we could stay alive bobbing around in a life raft with little hope of rescue.
The big set pieces like the ship sinking as animals rampage round the deck are thrilling and visceral, but Pi offers the wreck investigators two versions of the same story. Both are sensational and testament to every human’s deeply ingrained survival instinct, but like the book Chakrabarti invites you to make up your own mind which we feel more comfortable with or believe.
This is the second time I’ve seen Life of Pi on this tour, and last time I was dazzled by the world class puppetry that brings Richard Parker to life, plus a menagerie of animals popping up around Tim Hatley’s versatile set design, including the orangutan, hyena and zebra who also seem to have been on Pi’s raft…or were they? The cast also double up as puppeteers, but full marks to a back breaking effort from the talented three-person team in the beautifully designed Richard Parker who subtly recreated the menace and power of a tiger.
This time out I was more focused on the acting including a sensational stage debut for RADA graduate Divesh Subaskaran as Pi. This was a big role that he has clearly grown into on tour as he flits from impish charm to sheer terror, and virtually every human emotion between, which he carried off with huge confidence and storytelling ability. The experienced Ralph Birtwell was full of gruff love as Pi’s zookeeper dad, and Peter Twose added an air of menace despite a slightly dodgy French accent as the dastardly ship’s cook.
There are some big themes on offer in Life of Pi, but there is also enough action and brilliant puppetry that managed to keep a big group of Year 7s on a school trip quiet throughout.
Life of Pi is at Leeds Grand Theatre until Saturday 13th January. To book www.leedsheritage.com or 0113 2430808.
Reviewer: Paul Clarke
Reviewed: 10th January 2024
North West End UK Rating:
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