Review by Jennifer Mustoe, Front Row Reviewers
Life of Pi, brought to us by Broadway Across America plays at The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City is a startlingly beautiful, poignant, frightening, and sometimes comedic play that asks the big questions: What is Life? What is Death? Who is God? And how does one process the hardest moments of one’s existence? A tall order to be sure, but Life of Pi soundly answers them all, yet left me wondering as I left the theatre, on the drive home, and now, the morning after as I write this review. Do I have those answers? Does anyone?
Director Max Webster takes this archetypal tale and brings it to life for us to understand, yet leaves us to question all around us, as well. Based on the novel by Yann Martel, adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti, Pi (Taha Mandviwala) tells a most incredible story.
In the opening scene, butterflies held on sticks flit onstage, and share with us the first shimmering feeling of a perfect life in India, a metaphor of the lovely life Pi lives in India with his stern but caring Father (Sinclair Mitchell), loving Mama (Rishi Jaiswal), and free-spirited sister Rani (Sharayu Mahale).
In India, Pi begins an interesting pursuit of which God to follow, and he spends each day going from one local parish to another–Catholic, Hindu, and his family’s Muslim faith. Who is God is the first question Life of Pi introduces. Pi’s travels from religion to religion is shown as comical but it’s obvious young Pi is truly seeking a higher being who holds the truth. One other interesting point: Pi’s father calls him by his full name, Piscine, though the young man insists everyone call him Pi. A question arises: Do we have the right to use the name we choose?
The family is forced to leave India and board a ship with their menagerie of zoo animals: an orangutan (Jessica Angleskahn), a hyena, a zebra, and an enormous Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. I felt anxious. Why would Father bring these animals packed in crates? Why did the steamer company allow it? Life of Pi asks us: What is possible and what is impossible? What is family? Only humans, or animals as well?
Talented puppeteers maneuver puppets created by Finn Caldwell (Puppet & Movement Director, and Puppet Designer), Nick Barnes (Puppet Designer), Scarlett Wilderink (Richard Parker – Tiger Heart) and Fred Wild (Tiger Head). This is where we begin to see Life of Pi’s magic.It is hard to describe these puppets, their movements as well as their personalities come to life and the puppets’ twists and turns are truly remarkable. We see and hear the zebra bray, the orangutan hoot, the hyena snarl, and the tiger Richard Parker (manipulated by Ben Durocher, Shinola Doodin, Anna Heigh Gortner, Roussant JeanLouis, Betsy Rose, Anna Vomáća, and Andrew Wilson) bellow his fearsome roar.
A storm rages and the ship sinks. Pi and all the animals end up in a dingy, though quickly the zoo creatures all die except Richard Parker. The boy and the Bengal Tiger float on the ocean with one another – survival is key. Hunger, thirst, and fear bring Pi fearsome delusions. The challenge of this existence becomes the story’s real question. When are challenges too difficult to bear? Pi struggles with which God to trust, and his cries to all the Gods become his constant chant. We feel his desperation–how can he possibly survive, and which God will save him? Mandviwala shows his true talent as he brings this struggle to the forefront, screaming and crying for relief, for answers, for a promise that he will live through this. Mandviwala harnesses this struggle so powerfully, so innocently, so fearfully, we experience these strong emotions, too. We ask ourselves these same questions–what is real? Is there a God and if so, who is it? How do we live through horrendous trials and come out alive?
We see Pi in the hospital attended by kind, compassionate Lulu Chen (Mi Kang) who works at the Canadian embassy (figure for Pi’s dear Mother?) and Mr. Okamoto/Captain: A stern Japanese official and the captain of the freighter (a more serious version of Father?) These two people just want Pi to tell them what really happened after the ship sank. Pi shares his tale of the animals’ death and his wary relationship with Richard Parker. We understand through Pi’s extraordinary journey, trauma takes us to imagined places where fantasy is the only acceptable reality. The story of the boat is a metaphor, a survival story Pi creates to make sense of a desperate fear and an inability to predict what will happen to him and to Richard Parker. The play ends with this question: Would you rather have the story with the animals, or the story with the humans?
Life of Pi forces us to ask ourselves the big questions in an exquisite and heart-rending fashion. When you attend Life of Pi, you will have the opportunity to not only experience a most beautiful play, but you will have lived within a profound moment to begin to work those big questions out for yourself.
Broadway Across America and The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater present Life of Pi, based on the novel by Yann Martel, adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti.
The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, 131 Main St, Salt Lake City, Utah
April 2, 3, 2025 7:00 PM
April 4, 2025 7:30 PM
April 5, 2025 1:00 PM, 7:30 PM
April 6, 2025 1:00 PM, 6:30 PM
Tickets: $71-$178 Tickets are available at the Eccles Theater box office, 131 South Main Street, SLC, UT 84111, by visiting saltlakecountyarts.org/events (use this official link only) or by calling 801.355.2787 (ARTS)
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Note: Recommended for ages 13+. Contains some mature content and violence, smoke, haze, flashing lights, strobe lights and loud sounds throughout as well as scenes of animal ferocity and the death of animals, depicted by life-like puppets.
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