The Life Of Pi is kickstarting its first ever UK tour at Sheffield's Lyceum theatre, revisiting the city where the show originated back in 2019 when it premiered at Sheffield's Crucible theatre.
The play is based on the best selling novel by Yann Martel and was adapted for the stage by Lolita Chakrabarti. The play had great success in the West End when it opened at the Wyndhams Theatre in 2021 winning 5 Olivier awards. The show opened this year on Broadway and won 3 tony awards, knowing the show has won so many awards I was excited to see the touring production to see if it lived up to the reputation of the other productions.
The play directed by Max Webster tells the story of Pi a 17 year old boy from Pondicherry India. Pi and his family run a zoo in Pondicherry but dur to political unrest in India the family decide to leave the country and take there zoo to Canada. The family along with their animals take passage on a cargo ship but whilst on their journey to Canada there was a mighty storm which resulted in the sinking of the ship. Everyone on board the ship perished accept for Pi and 4 of the Zoo animals, the Zebra, Hyena, Orangutan and the Royal Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. Pi follows many religions and is a vegetarian but during the 227 day at sea with the tiger his faith and belief's are tested and he has to make sacrifices in order to survive.
The set, lighting and projections together make this a visually stunning production and Andrew T Mackey's beautiful score really adds the atmosphere to the production.
The best thing about this show for me is the puppets designed by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell. The puppets are so life like not just in appearance but also in there movement. The puppeteers do such a fantastic job that you don't even notice they are there and you whole heartedly believe that these creatures are real and dangerous. all the puppets in The Life Of Pi are fantastic but the Richard Parker Tiger Puppet is a masterpiece. The puppetry which appears in this show is just world class and I have never seen anything like it on stage and is just breath taking to see.
The cast for this show do an amazing Job with many taking on multiple roles but is the lead Divesh Subaskaran who gave the stand out performance of the night. The role of Pi is so challenging and Subaskaran is on stage for practically the entire show, he gave a wonderfully convincing performance bringing out the youthful innocence of Pi as well as a likability to the Character. It is hard to believe that this is Subaskaran professional debut.
Life of Pi is at it's heart a story about endurance, resilience, survival and the philosophical exploration of belief. It is a visually stunning show with world class puppetry puppetry which you do not want to miss.
Life Of Pi is running at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield until Saturday 16th September 2023
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Photos from original production - Photo Credit - Johan Persson
*Our tickets for this show were kindly gifted in exchange for an honest review
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