‘I’m learning different parts of myself’
I’ve never moved so much In my life, It’s highly physical.”
divesh subaskaran on the strength and endurance of life of pi… By Keeley Ryan
For Life of Pi’s Divesh Subaskaran, each night on stage is an adventure — and one that involves getting “to be chased around a lifeboat by a tiger”. Lolita Chakrabarti’s stage adaptation ofyann Martel’s best-selling, Man Booker Prize-winning novel will run at Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from February 27 until March 2.
Life of Pi, which has sold more than 15 million copies around the world, is an epic tale of endurance and hope.
It follows five survivors — a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, a 16-year-old boy named Piscine Molitor“pi”patel and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger — who are stranded on a lifeboat after a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Time is against them and, as the harsh realities of nature and their situation set in, it becomes a question of who will survive.
Life of Pi, which ended its West End run last January, first opened to critical acclaim at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 2019.
It went on to win five Olivier Awards in April 2022, including Best Actor, Best Play and — in a historic first for the ceremony — the seven performers who puppeteer the Tiger ‘Richard Parker’ were collectively awarded Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
And Divesh, who plays Pi in the stage show, told Chic about the experience of taking on the role, and what it’s like getting to“play a game of tag”with the tiger every evening.
He said,“i’ve never moved so much in my life — it’s a highly physical show.
“I learned and realised that the show is set up with all these different animals and puppets, and I’m actually an extension of those puppets.
“I’m actually being puppeteered as well, in some of the lifts, jumps and dives. That’s how this show is set up. Initially, it was quite challenging. I needed time to build the muscularity to be able to do some of these things, even though I’m being lifted, I also have to hold myself up to be able to make it easier for some of the lifters.
“And in regards to the puppets, we spent a lot of time in the early stages trying to understand the concepts of puppetry — and obviously, worked with Finn Caldwell; Scarlet, who was a puppeteer in the show, and Romina, as well. Now we’re 140 shows in.
“It’s been great. I think it’s quite exciting that I get to be chased around a lifeboat by a tiger every evening — I do look forward to that. It’s like we play a game of tag.”
Life of Pi was first published in 2001. It was adapted for the big screen in 2012, with Suraj Sharma taking on the role of
Pi. Divesh told how he had seen the film “numerous times”before auditioning for the stage adaptation, and read the book soon after landing the role. He recalled,“i’ve seen the film loads of times. And the book, I started reading that after I landed the job. I remember reading the book while in India.”
The actor explained that he got to visit Pondicherry, where the play is set, before rehearsals — and that it enabled him to get a“sort of feel of the place”.
He continued, “There’s no zoo in the botanical gardens, but I did go into the botanical gardens — and I can see why the writer chose that place, you can sort of imagine it being there. It was lovely.
“I didn’t spend much time there, but it was nice to have a sort of feel of the place.”
Divesh also opened up about what playing the role of Pi has taught him about himself so far — and building the relationships between Pi and the puppets, and trying to make them“more real”.
He said,“i feel like the character is quite the opposite to who I am, as a person. I’m learning different parts of myself playing the character.
“I think he’s extremely energetic, extremely curious about the world and he’s always questioning things.
“He’s teaching me how to find that in my own life — how to be a bit more forthcoming, and how to engage with my reality in a more curious kind of way.
“I’m quite laid back as a person, quite easygoing. I’m not very bouncy or anything like that. But the character, he’s springing about all over the place in the show — at the beginning, before the ship even sinks, even when he’s on the lifeboat.
“I enjoy finding that front-footedness in my own life. The character has taught me that, because — I’m not going to say that I’m not that, but I wasn’t that to begin with and I am now, to a certain degree. I enjoyed that.
“But I also enjoy playing with the puppets and trying to make the relationships more real. The show has come such a long way since it started in Sheffield.
“I look at the tiger, and I look at what the puppeteers are doing and I truly am amazed at how they’re able to create this character; the tiger, the orangutan, the zebra...”
Divesh also praised the puppeteers, and told how“amazing”it is to see what they do.
He said,“apart from being a play, it’s also a sport, I feel. It’s not an easy show to put on every night. It requires a lot of endurance — and the play is about that; it’s about survival and endurance. And so to a certain extent, we’re having to go through that struggle as well, doing it so often.
“They’re amazing, and I’m learning a lot from them in terms of how to take care of my body and how to be in touch with my movement. It’s amazing what they can do.
“They have three people operating the puppet — the head, the heart and the hind. They’re not one single character, they’re three people playing one character. They have to be super in sync and their dialogue is different from the dialogue that I have.
“Having done the show often now, I’m understanding what the physical dialogue is for the animals and between Pi and the animals. It’s a physical dialogue that they have to have with each other, and I think that’s quite important.
“If you’re in tune with that — you can understand people through their body language quite often, and they have to go to a whole other level and feel each other’s body language through this puppet. It’s amazing to watch them work.”
Life of Pi runs at Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from February 27 until March 2. For more information or tickets, visit www.bordgaisenergytheatre.ie.