Review: Life of Pi at The Lyceum, Sheffield

These are questions at the heart of Life of Pi, the theatrical adaptation of Yann Martel’s acclaimed 2001 novel which became a film by Ang Lee in 2012. The stage version started out here in Sheffield, at the Crucible, in 2019 – and four years later it’s back, this time for a three-week run at the Lyceum, to kickstart an epic 10-month UK tour.

As before, when the show collected five star reviews in Sheffield, Olivier awards in the West End and Tonys on Broadway, the production is a mesmerising fable of a masterpiece, a soaring voyage of survival, spirituality, and the power of storytelling.

Divesh Subaskaran, making an astonishing professional debut in a play as physically demanding as it is a feat of dialogue, is perfection as Pi, the 16-year-old sole survivor of a Pacific shipwreck.

Ballet-light on his feet he may be, wryly comedic when he needs to be – “I’ve had a terrible trip,” he observes, deadpan, to the insurance investigators sent to interview him – his boyish delivery belies the trauma of his experience as his dreadful story unfolds.

The staging, and the lighting, are breathtakingly beautiful. Fish shimmer, waves ripple, storms rain down, and days at sea are tallied by an old-fashioned typewriter – all thanks to the ingenious use of projections.

The clever set design transitions seamlessly between the lush landscapes of India and the vast, brutal, unforgiving ocean, and Pi’s stark, clinical hospital bed.

And then of course there’s Richard Parker, the sometime talking Bengal tiger, with whom Pi shares his survival.

Operated by seven puppeteers, the stagecraft is all part of the allegory. The human puppeteers seem visible to begin with, the tiger looks little more than driftwood, the tall tales Pi tells too inconceivable. By the end, all disbelief is suspended. The actors’ manipulations are nothing short of performance art, the tiger’s movements as sinewy and chilling as those of the real beast. And when Pi tells his alternate version of the story? The facts are so terrible they have to be told by shadows.

“Which story do you prefer?” asks Pi to his interviewers. Find out for yourself. Just like last time this production is a roaring success, with a story and cast that are simply incredible.