REVIEW: LIFE OF PI — Segerstrom Center for the Arts
- TheShowReport
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 23 hours ago
With dazzling imagination and sublime control, the show’s cast and crew conjures a far-fetched, fantastical, highly-pettable world. And oh, is it a wonder!
JUNE 3RD—COSTA MESA
You know that roaring that you hear at the show’s end? It’s the sound of a standing ovation.
Produced by Simon Friend, Daryl Roth, Hal Luftig, Mark Gordon Pictures, and NETworks Presentations, Lolita Chakrabarti’s dazzling stage adaptation of LIFE OF PI is based on Yann Martel’s best-selling novel — one of the best-loved works of fiction and winner of the International Booker Prize has become a global phenomenon with acclaimed engagements on Broadway, London’s West End and a UK tour. And now LIFE OF PI is thrilling US audiences on a multi-city US tour.
Told with jaw-dropping visuals, world class puppetry and exquisite stagecraft, LIFE OF PI creates a visually stunning journey that will leave you filled with awe and joy. Martel’s extraordinary story of family, resilience and survival and the natural world combined with Chakrabarti’s brilliantly staged story will speak to every generation.
The butterflies enter first, quivering gaily atop their sticks. Then a giraffe pokes her head in. A goat gambols. A hyena cackles. One zebra runs on. Then another. An orangutan swings through while her baby reposes on a branch nearby. Above, monkeys and meerkats chitter. In the first act of LIFE OF PI, a full menagerie — menacing, delightful — entrenches itself on the Segerstrom Stage at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
As Pi, Taha Mandviwala looks every inch the puckish man-boy protaganist and is incredibly light on his feet. He plays him as a 17-year-old survivor with PTSD in a hospital, and, in flashbacks, as a slightly maniacal castaway on the boat. He is especially good at conjuring alarm in whooping, adrenalized highs and also plays well as tense and overwrought in the softer moments.
Though the play is ostensibly about one boy’s fraught survival after a disaster, the story is a much larger affair than a small-man-big-cat stand-off. It also succeeds as a broader tribute to human ingenuity and animal grace.
LIFE OF PI won three Tony Awards for Best Scenic Design of a Play Best Lighting Design of a Play, and Best Sound Design of a Play, four Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play, Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play, Outstanding Projection and Video Design and Outstanding Puppetry and two Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design of a Play or Musical and Outstanding Video or Projection Design of a Play or Musical.
Director Max Webster has choreographed a seamless ensemble to create the three worlds of Martel’s epic yet intimate story of survival: a barren hospital in Mexico, the lush and colorful Indian town of Pondicherry, and the beautiful and unpredictable open sea.
The production begins in 1978 at a hospital where Pi — real name Piscine Molitor Patel — has landed, traumatized, following his rescue after 227 days adrift at sea. Pi, his family, and the animals from their zoo had been aboard the Japanese cargo ship Tsimtsum when it sank on its journey from India to Canada. Pi is the only survivor.
Canadian diplomat Lulu Chen (Mi Kang) represents Pi’s interests because his family had been heading to Winnipeg when the tragedy struck. Japanese insurance investigator Mr. Okamoto (Alan Ariano) is less interested in Pi’s comfort than in learning the true story of what happened aboard the vessel.
Aided by his nurse (wonderfully portrayed by Jessica Angleskhan), Pi is willing to share his story on his own terms. And that narrative ignites the explosive magic of LIFE OF PI.
The location shifts to India years earlier, after Pi’s family had taken over a zoo in the Pondicherry Botanical Gardens. His gruff father (Sorab Wadia) doesn’t believe that Pi or his sister Rani (Sharayu Mahale) take the dangers of the zoo seriously enough. Their mother, Amma (also Ms. Angleskhan), and an insightful teacher, Mrs. Biology Kumar (also Ms. Kang), fill the children with ample amounts of love and lessons in humanity. Pi explains to his listeners, “Our life was idyllic.”
But dad knows better. The corrupt government is increasingly becoming a threat to the family and their beloved animals. “This world is dangerous,” Pi’s father warns. “It is a mistake to think we’re safe.” The family and their animals will move to Winnipeg, where, with support from the Canadian government, a new zoo can be created.
The imposing structure and action of the crew of the freighter Tsimtsum is foreboding from the start. Once a storm begins to churn, the danger increases.
But it’s not only the people who are in grave danger. The animals are too. In this imaginative production, which is rooted in puppetry, the animals are in many ways more finely detailed presences than the human actors. Once the storm surges, the animals are knocked free from their crates. The resulting anarchy leads to an image of Pi, alone and adrift in the open sea.
The compelling story of Pi’s survival, enlivened by his observations and hallucinations, along with the frequent twists in the plot and nuggets of wisdom supplied by the ghosts of his family and other characters, ensures that the production, which runs a little over two hours with an intermission, zips along.
The performances and Max Webster’s direction are strong across the board, but that’s not what makes this production memorable. It’s the visual spectacle, the physical grace of the animals, as maneuvered by an ensemble of puppeteers, as well as the brilliant use of projections, lighting, and sound.
The spectacular marionettes, designed by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, are a remarkable step forward in sophisticated design craft, going beyond the heralded animals in The Lion King, or even Joey, the puppet star of The National Theatre’s War Horse. The stylized critters in Life of Pi assert themselves, viscerally, as living (and dying) beings. The movements, sounds, and rhythms of the puppets are realism accented by fantasy. The birds, fish, and giant sea turtles float and flutter with grace. Operated by two and sometimes three puppeteers, the zebras, an orangutan, a goat, a hyena, and even a giraffe move exquisitely through Pi’s adventure.
The co-star of LIFE OF PI is the notorious Bengal Tiger, Richard Parker (voiced this night by Ben Durocher). He’s terrifying, threatening, imposing, majestic, and lovable in all the right ways.
Tim Hatley’s set and costumes are both surprising and completely functional. And the splendidly chameleonic flexibility of the set makes it a major character in the story. Much of the play centers on Pi as he is adrift at sea or in the Mexican hospital, but the set also delivers, with aplomb, the beauty and color of the Indian scenes at the zoo and later, even a visit to a market. Also, Andrew T. Mackay’s original score buoys the production’s many ups and downs.
But it’s really the video design by Andrzej Goulding, lighting design by Tim Lutkin, and sound design by Carolyn Downing that transform Life of Pi into an unforgettable night of theater. If you’re a frequent theatergoer, you have become acclimated to the dependence of modern stage productions on projections. But Goulding has created a marvelously textured videoscape that surpasses all other production efforts. As the ocean current flows, you feel like you’re moving. The wind seems to blow your hair and when it rains you feel as if you want to look for cover. The projections are so intricately interwoven with the lighting and sound that Pi’s experiences become powerfully concrete as well as emotional.
The story ends with Mr. Okamoto’s report to the insurance company. He writes that this is “an outstanding story of courage and endurance in the face of extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances,” and concludes, “very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.”
CAST: JESSICA ANGLESKHAN, ALAN ARIANO, PRAGUN BHARDWAJ, JON HOCHE, BEN DUROCHER, SHILOH GOODIN, ANNA LEIGH GORTNER, AARON HASKELL, RISHI JAISWAL, TOUSSAINT JEANLOUIS, MI KANG, INTAE KIM, SHARAYU MAHALE, SINCLAIR MITCHELL, MAYA RANGULU, BETSY ROSEN, ANNA VOMACKA, SORAB WADIA, ANDREW WILSON, SAVIDU GEEVARATNE.
SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS PROUDLY PRESENTS – THE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR OF LIFE OF PI; Based on the Novel by YANN MARTEL; Directed by MAX WEBSTER. LIFE OF PI plays from June 3rd through June 15th, 2025 at SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Costa Mesa. Performances are Tuesday-Friday at 7:30pm; Saturday at 2:00pm and 7:30pm; Sundays at 1:00pm & 6:30pm. For tickets, visit www.scfta.org
Chris Daniels
Arts & Entertainment Reviewer
The Show Report
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