The book by author, Yann Martel, was originally rejected by five different publishers before it was released in September 2001. It has since gone on to sell millions of copies all over the world, winning the Man Booker Prize in 2002.
The film of the novel followed in 2012 and was also a huge success winning four Oscars, including Best Director, Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography. And the stage play, which premiered in 2019 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, went on to be a smash winning five Laurence Olivier Awards.
And now it’s on its first UK tour, opening tonight at Bristol’s Hippodrome theatre. We are of course talking about The Life of Pi, the story of a young boy from Pondicherry in India and how he is shipwrecked during a terrifying storm in the Pacific Ocean whilst trying, along with his family, to make a new life and to transport their animals from their Indian zoo that they have been forced to close to a new life in Canada.
Trying to survive, and trapped in a small boat, Pi has a zebra, a hyena, an orang-utan and a Bengal tiger called Robert Parker for company. But of course they can’t all survive.
Lolita Chakrabarti’s play is a spectacle, the highlight of which are the fantastic puppets, the stand-out of course being Robert Parker. It takes three puppeteers to operate but it’s well worth it – the movement, the intensity and the menacing way he prowls, commanding the stage, highlights the sheer talent and stage-craft of the puppeteers – it is quite simply mesmerising.
But this is no sanitised story, its all about the survival of the fittest and this is seen in some of the challenging survival scenes. The play is true to the request of author Yann Martel that the animals should be portrayed as they would behave in nature, and they are, sometimes in gruesome detail.
At the centre of all this is Pi, played by Divesh Subaskaran in his major stage debut. It was a shame that he was unable to continue after the interval, resulting in an extended break whilst understudy Keshini Misha was readied for the second-half.
Special mention should go to Misha for stepping in, and for the rest of the cast for adapting, especially given that Pi was now a girl and not a boy as in the first half necessitating changes to the script.
But in the end this is what theatre is about. A story that makes you think, but that captivates at the same time keeping you on the edge of your seat with drama and suspense in equal measure. A well designed set and fantastic lighting help portray the story in its full glory. If theatre is your thing then The Life of Pi is a must – you won’t be disappointed.
The Life of Pi plays at Bristol Hippodrome until Saturday 20 January and then tours across the UK until the end of June. For more information and tickets follow this link.
