“I have always been an admirer of these NTL productions, and this is possibly their finest.“
Con Nats
4.5 Richard Parkers
Australian Release Date March 31 2023
It’s a hell of a challenge to take a film as visually evocative as Yann Martel’s little book and Ang Lee’s stunning movie and turn Life of Pi into a play. Film uses CGI to dazzle our eyes. Theatre uses your imagination to dazzle your senses. Director Max Webster and his team of puppeteers, sound and light designers have done a fantastic job on the moderately sized Wyndham Theatre stage that blows its boundaries.
Life of Pi is the story of Piscine Patel (Hiran Abeysekera), a young Indian boy trapped on a lifeboat in the Pacific for 227 days, with a Bengal tiger and how he survived. Fans will be pleased to know that this production is faithful to the book which has won five Olivier Awards and went on to be performed on Broadway this year.
It opens in 1978 on a bare set with Pi hiding under his hospital bed in Mexico, and his two interrogators: Canadian diplomat, Lulu Chen (Kirstin Louie) and insurance investigator, Mr Okamoto (Daisuke Tsuji) who want to know what happened on the cargo boat which carried his family and animals to Canada. Nurse (Mahira Kakkar) subdues him and he opens up and takes us to his family zoo in Pondicherry, India.
The animals are complex puppets, using sticks and grips held by humans in white. Webster sets our expectations with butterflies in early scenes, followed by key animals such as the orangutan, Black-and-White, the zebra and a hyena, which delight us. By the time the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, appears in a blaze of light the audience is audibly shocked by his presence. His menace is real.
It might sound clunky, but the three people operating each animal add sounds and subtle movements. I noticed Richard Parker’s thigh twitch, his yawns and licks. It adds another level of detail to your imagination. These guys were so good, they won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor. You heard that right: three puppeteers won an award for acting.
What really stuns the senses are how the choreography, the lighting and the sounds simulate the water and storms. It is brilliant staging. And the way the boat appears seguing between scenes in the hospital and back on the boat is clever and impressive.
Tim Hatley (set and costume), Finn Caldwell (puppetry and choreography), Nick Barnes (puppets), Adrzej Goulding (video), Tim Lutkin (lighting) and Carolyn Downing (sound design) and Andrew T Mackay (music) have combined and complemented each other to provide a real sensory experience that seems suited to best to those in the stalls and back rows.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen theatre this amazing. We are constantly taken by surprise. (My only gripe is that they didn’t extend their craft to the flesh-eating island scene.)
Hiran Abeysekera as Pi does an excellent job in this demanding role. He has the innocence, wisdom and humour of Pi, and handles the despair of his character so well. Only his father (Rajesh Bose) dispenses with an Indian accent and overacts, but the support cast are solid and also act as puppeteers. Lolita Chakrabati’s script has limited their characterisation, but this is Pi’s journey.
I have always been an admirer of these NTL productions, and this is possibly their finest. There is more focus on the spectacle than the philosophical, and the religious themes are not overplayed. The play itself is two hours plus intermission and an interview with the staging magicians. It never feels long. It may lack big name stars but this production still sparkles as brightly as a clear night sky full of dancing stars on sticks. Theatre is meant to be this good.
Con Nats, On The Screen
