Review of Life of Pi at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

Having previously enjoyed the clever film ‘Life of Pi’, I was very interested to see how this could be brought to life on the stage, particularly with a modest amount of characters, primarily consisting of lead characters Piscine “Pi” Patel and a ferocious tiger named Richard Parker!

The play begins with the young man  Pi (Divesh Subaskaran) being persuaded to look back on his story for a medical evaluation.

This is a story of being a solo survivor on a lifeboat after a Canada bound cargo ship tragically sinks, ultimately with only a tiger as a companion.

This premise is multi-layered and much deeper though and this comes across more and more during the performance. It keeps the audience in suspense as to how Pi will survive and if he is actually telling the truth.

The audience was captivated by the show and I was swept away not only by the performance itself, but the atmosphere in the theatre. It was almost as if we were on that journey with Pi.

The special effects and lighting were outstanding as was the puppetry, particularly of Richard Parker. He made us jump a few times with his growl and this added to the excitement. There were also some profound moments which were nicely balanced out with occasional sharp humour in places.

The reaction at the end spoke for itself as I have never heard such rapturous applause at the end of a play before!

I wholeheartedly recommend this show as an intelligent production of escapism.