'Life of Pi': Spectacular UK stage adaptation

‘LIFE OF PI’: Tom Larkin (Tiger Head) & Hiran Abeysekera Photo: Johan Persson.

LIFE OF PI
Based on the novel by Yann Martel
Adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti
Directed by Max Webster
Wyndham’s Theatre
Charing Cross Road
London, United Kingdom
(0844 482 5138), www.lifeofpionstage.com

By David NouNou

Life of Pi is an enigma. Like War Horse, it is epic in every sense of the word. Whereas War Horse was always engrossing in a straightforward narrative, the narrative in Life of Pi is continually shifting between past and present. This type of storytelling can be riveting in movies as demonstrated in the 2012 Ang Lee film of the same name. In movies, the director and editor can develop a seamless scenario. In the theatre, those same scenes don’t come off as effectively because the narrative is constantly being interrupted by past/present scene changes and that can sometimes break the flow of the storyline.

Starting with Pi (Nuwan Hugh Perera) under his bed in an antiseptic hospital room in Mexico, he’s being questioned by Lulu Chen (Kirsten Foster), a Canadian government figure and Mr. Okamoto (David K.S. Tse), a Japanese insurance man. They want to know how this 17-year-old boy survived for 227 days and was washed up on the Mexican shore after being shipwrecked from a Japanese freighter bound for Canada. Pi has struggled with grief, loss, loneliness, physical pain and still survived.

He is reticent to talk to them at first and finally does open up to explain his childhood in India, his parents, sister, his relatives, and the zoo that his father owned. The zoo was a magical place for Pi; it housed a gorilla, a giraffe, a zebra, among other animals and Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger supreme.

Pi’s father (Nicholas Khan) and mother, also overseer and protector during his ordeal (Mina Anwar) and family are forced to leave India due to the increasingly repressive government.

As the journey begins, so does the magic created by set and costume designer Tim Hatley. Turning the hospital room and bed into an ocean and a boat is nothing short of extraordinary and a visual extravaganza. As Pi jumps ship after being sunk in a storm, his companions consist of a giraffe, zebra, and gorilla and Richard Parker. I don’t have to go into detail about the giraffe, zebra and gorilla. Suffice it to say the battle is between Pi and Richard Parker and their mutual understanding of each other. What I do have to mention is the remarkable work done by puppet designers Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell as well as the puppet movement by director Finn Caldwell. They make you forget that Richard Parker is a puppet and not a real tiger.

Unlike the movie, which relied mostly on special effects to engage the mass audiences, here religion and metaphysics play a big part in Pi’s survival and it is manifested in the scenes between the hospital and the ocean. At our performance, the part of Pi was played by the understudy, Nuwan Hugh Perera. He marvelously captures Pi’s innocence in the beginning as well as his struggles and ordeals with life, religion, and survival.

Mina Anwar gives a very touching performance as Pi’s mother and overseer. Special kudos have to go to the handlers of Richard Parker: his head, his hind, and his heart, and his masterful voice, (Habib Nasib Nader).

Despite all the shifting and interruptions of scenes, the West End stage adaptation of Life of Pi is still a journey of mystical belief and an unforgettable visual treat and experience—one you will remember long after leaving the theatre.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published July 13, 2022
Reviewed in London on June 13, 2022.