A familiar tale brought to life on the stage
Life Of Pi (Until Saturday, Bord Gais Energy Theatre) Verdict: Visually stunning ★★★★☆
THERE are few set, lighting and costume projects in the theatre world to rival Life Of Pi. The story of a man and a tiger adrift on a boat on the ocean for 227 days — staging it is a logistical challenge of the highest order.
Based on the 2001 novel by Yann Martel, which won the Man Booker Prize and sold 15 million copies worldwide, and the 2012 Oscarwinning film directed by Ang Lee, it’s a truly epic tale.
Told by Piscine Patel — who changes his name to Pi after his classmates liken his name to a vulgar verb — it begins at his family’s home in India, where we see the first of the play’s incredible puppetry as butterflies flutter through the gardens.
When the family move to a zoo, the puppets become bigger, more lifelike — and much more impressive.
They settle in to their new surroundings and their father teaches Pi and his brother about the beauty of animals, but also the ever-present danger. When Pi tries to get too close to the new Bengal tiger, his father brutally feeds the brothers’ beloved goat to him to teach them a lesson.
When the family travel to the nearby market, they discover that Pi has been regularly attending the local Hindu, Christian and Islamic churches, in a bid to find out which can tell the ‘best’ story of God.
Beneath their happy family life, there is an undercurrent of unrest, as turbulent political issues unfold around them. When things start to get very bad and protests move ever closer to them, they decide to move to Canada, taking the animals with them.
They board a cargo ship on which they are given little help or hospitality — with the ship’s chef being particularly brutal when they ask him about his vegetarian options.
During the journey, the ship is hit by a terrible storm and one sailor who has been somewhat helpful throws Pi overboard into a lifeboat. There he is joined by a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan named Orange Juice and a rather nasty hyena. The hyena kills both the zebra and the orangutan and seems to have similar plans for Pi, when the tiger Richard Parker — so named cue to a clerical error that mixed up his name and that of the hunter who captured him — appears and saves Pi by killing the hyena.
Pi takes refuge on a makeshift raft bobbing off the side of the boat, from where he attempts to train Richard Parker as their perilous journey continues.
This fantastical story is all being told in flashbacks in a Mexican hospital by Pi to an investigator from the shipping company, who is seeking information for the insurance case.
She finds it very hard to believe but Pi challenges her on her unwillingness to listen to a good story.
Divesh Subaskaran is brilliant as Pi, capturing perfectly the juxtaposition of his irrepressible imagination and his profound loss.
SO, how do you stage a production that requires life-size animals, moving water and jumping timelines in a very small space? In this case, very well indeed.
The absolute stars of the show are the puppeteers who control the animals, in particular Richar Parker. In fact, so impressive are they that they collectively won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 2022.
The movements are beautifully eloquent, visually stunning and utterly captivating. They also owe much to the lighting and set teams, who all combine to make you feel every undulation of the boat on the waves.
Pi’s ultimate question is one that can be applied across many areas of life, not least religion and interdependence: Which story do you want to believe?