THEATRE REVIEW: Life Of Pi - The Grand Theatre, Leeds.

Set against the backdrop of political turmoil in 1970's India, zookeeper (Ralph Birtwell), his wife and two sons are forced to leave their beloved Pondicherry, and seek refuge and exile in Canada. It seems that is the only country willing to accept the family as well as majority of the zoo animals too! The family, including the menagery, are loaded onto a foreign cargo ship and their hope of a new life begins. However, disaster strikes, the ship is caught in a violent storm and sinks. The only human survivor being the younger son, Piscine Patel (who calles himself Pi). He survives for many days on the oceans sharing his lfeboat with the zoo's newest acquisition, a Bengal Tiger by the name of Richard Parker. He is washed ashore on the coast of Mexico, and both the medical profession and the ship's insurers have come to either help him back to full recovery (in the case of the doctors) and get an accurate account of his story (the insurers). What happens on stage, deftly adapted from Yann Martel's novel by Lolita Chakrabarti, is this story. 

A clever set design allows the scene changes to be seamless and swift, utilising some computer generated images and a superb sound and lighting design, we go back and forth from hospital bed to lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with ease. The effects in this production are all stellar, and sound levels are perfectly balanced.

Giving a truly realistic and believable performance on this, his professional theatre debut, of the protagonist Pi, is young actor Divesh Subaskaran.We are completely invested in his adventure which is brought vividly to life by the inclusion of some marvellous puppetry. Ever since The National Theatre produced the excellent 'War Horse', theatre companies have seen the potential of creating life-size puppets which are manipulated by humans either inside or around, or in most cases, both. These puppeteers deserve huge approbation since they spend the entire stage time bent over or on haunches, or some other uncomfortable and unnatural position in order to bring these animals to life as vividly and realistically as possible. Some of the animals worked better than others this evening - the orang-utan being the least life-life in my opinion. But the tiger was magnificent, an equal star of the play with Pi. One could not exist without the other.

The supporting roles were many and various and all worked well, keeping us engaged and enthralled with this strange and incredible tale. This is a play based on the novel, and so it does not follow the novel precisely, but the main storyline remains the same. However, whether you have read the book or not does not matter, this is a production which demands to be seen. 

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 10.1.24