The perfect Pi equation
Pi Patel, a 16-year-old boy, is lost in the Pacific Ocean for several days now, desperately trying to survive. Each day is harder than the other. Food is depleting fast and there is no fresh water to drink. Then there are the frequent hallucinations of a stressed, lonely mind. In one, Pi sees his dead family, his mother, father and sister. It’s his beloved amma’s birthday. He sings Happy Birthday to You… and his sister and father chime in. It’s one of the most soulful, yet sad renditions of the song one would have ever heard. In that moment, you feel a lump in your throat. The very next minute, the audience is chuckling at something silly yet profound Pi has said.
The theatrical adaptation of Life of Pi, the five-time Oliver award-winning production of how a boy survives the dangers of the sea for 200 days along with a Royal Bengal tiger, is a roller coaster of emotions. It’s humorous, poignant, and also philosophical. The stage adaption of the eponymous Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Yann Martel, adapted for the stage by Lolita Chakrabarti, made its India debut at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai. The sound and lights heighten the emotions of fear and valour and of hope and hopelessness of this complex, fictional and layered story that has both, human and animal characters.
The giraffe, hyena, a goat and the Royal Bengal Tiger are presented as life-size puppets, manoeuvred by expert puppeteers. “Puppetry allows these animals to be accurate in scale and presence, but they are not fully naturalistic representations, with the sense of them being constructed out of driftwood—designed by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell. They are being formed for us out of Pi’s mind as he tells his story,” says Leigh Toney, international tour director of the play. The puppeteers move in perfect synchrony among the minimal sets of a zoo, a ship, a hospital room and a boat. Along with them on stage, sometimes, is also the production team moving sets or holding a make-shift screen displaying digital projections. But not once, is the focus taken away from the actors or the story.
Everyone on stage is in perfect sync like in a well-choreographed dance sequence, except here they are discreet. That’s another massive achievement of the show’s brilliant direction. “The movement and transitions between scenes takes a lot of careful choreography and precision,” says Toney. And every movement is designed for a reason. “There is always logic to the movement whether it be a swirling vortex of water or a breeze blowing paper, which allows you to think about how your object might move and where,” says Toney. During rehearsals, the production works hard on peripheral vision and being able to navigate others in the space. Complementing the harmonious, on-stage synchrony is superlative light and sound directions. It makes you squirm, shocks you and raises the hair on the back of your neck.
The acting is stellar as well. Twenty-six-year-old Divesh Subaskaran with Indian and Sri Lankan roots essays the character of Pi convincingly. He looks the part and his dexterity on stage earns him extra marks. He had locked himself in his flat for a week, practicing for the audition. “My flatmates thought I was a bit obsessive, especially when I transformed the couches in my living room into a lifeboat, imagining myself adrift in the middle of the Pacific,” says Subaskaran.
But what makes Life of Pi extra special are a string of moments, beautifully crafted unlike anything you might have seen. For instance, the tiger’s dramatic and shocking attempts to hurt Pi or the scene when the tiger rests his head on Pi’s head and passes away. “I think the section that hits me hardest is the contrast between two moments. Pi has over time figured out how to coexist with Richard Parker (the tiger) on the lifeboat, which gives him the capacity to appreciate the world around him… and in the next breath it is all swept away from him which is heartbreaking,” says Toney.
The scene that has gotten unprecedented reaction from Indian audiences is the one where Pi practices different religions all at once. “…it feels that this scene has a particular resonance here that I haven’t experienced elsewhere and the humour of this definitely hits differently here,” adds Toney. What isn’t different, however, is the way the play has been loved and received.