Review: Life of Pi at Liverpool Empire ****1/2

First it was a book, then a film. But Yann Martel’s allegorical tale of a shipwrecked Indian teenager adrift in the Pacific with only a fearsome Bengal tiger for company has found perhaps its most visceral and captivating telling on the stage.

Lolita Chakrabarti’s lyrical, multi-award-winning adaptation of Martel’s philosophical novel, at the Empire as part of an inaugural UK tour, is beguiling and brutal in almost equal measure.

The tale, related by the titular Pi (Divesh Subaskaran) in flashbacks from a Mexican hospital bed, is one of perpetual and sinuous motion where actors and an enchantingly realised puppet menagerie come together to create something memorably magical.

What was the fate of the Japanese freighter Tsimtsum and its crew and passengers? And how did Pi come to survive 227 days in the Pacific Ocean?

As the story unfolds, we’re drawn back to 1970s Pondicherry, on India’s east coast, a richly-hued land of magical sights and sounds where the bright-eyed, softly spoken, spiritually questioning Pi lives at the zoo his family manages.

Here Pi and his mathematically talented elder sister Rani (Sonya Venugopal) play but are also subjected to some harsh life lessons about the pecking order of the animal kingdom. Justice for the martyr goat Buckingham!

With unrest fermenting outside the zoo’s walls, Pi’s father (Ralph Birtwell) decides to move family lock, stock and livestock to Canada. But their transit goes fatally wrong in the stormy southern seas, leaving only Pi and what we see as a handful of the zoo's animals afloat.

Above: Pi (Divesh Subaskaran) ponders his spiritual choices in Pondicherry. Top: Adrift at sea with Richard Parker the Bengal tiger. Photos courtesy of the production.

Director Max Webster keeps a light hand on the tiller as we’re swept away with Pi and his battle for survival alongside tiger Richard Parker, brought sleekly, powerfully – and believably - to life by a trio of talented actor/puppeteers who seemingly become the big cat, being both visible and invisible at the same time.

Puppeteers also breathe vitality into the zoo’s other inhabitants, from aged zebra to new mother orangutan, as well as creating magic with aquatic visitors to Pi’s lifeboat – a craft which cleverly spins and shimmers into life before our eyes.

While it’s an ensemble-based show, Life of Pi’s fulcrum remains its titular raft-bound hero.

And the Malaysian-born, Singapore-raised Subaskaran – incredibly making his professional debut in this touring production - is hugely impressive in the role, whether pondering his spiritual choices, taming his shipwrecked companion or relating his fantastical story.

Life of Pi originally began life on the Sheffield Crucible’s intimate thrust stage.

And while the action translates very happily to proscenium arch performance, there were occasional moments in the first half on opening night where the dialogue was lost somewhere in the Empire’s much, much larger space.