Review: LIFE OF PI at The Paramount Theatre

Dear Readers, sometimes we get magic on stage.  Whether that’s in the form of a captivating performance or some brilliant tech wizardry or maybe some stunning direction, this magic is what we yearn for when we go to the theater.  Lucky for you, all three have come to the Paramount with the gripping “Life of Pi”.

Maybe you’re familiar with the novel by Yann Martel, or maybe the 2012 film, or maybe not at all.  In any instance you’re in for a ride as we meet Pi (Taha Mandviwala), a teenage boy living in India with his family, his father (Sorab Wadia), his mother (Jessica Angleskhan), and his sister Rani (Sharayu Mahale), at the zoo his father runs.  It’s 1976 and his father announces that they need to move away due to “The Emergency”, a time of political and violent unrest in India.  But the cargo ship taking them and the animals to Canada runs into a massive storm and sinks, leaving young Pi on a lifeboat along with some of the animals including a vicious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.  And now Pi must somehow survive on a small lifeboat, in tumultuous waters, with this wild animal, and hope that he is somehow rescued soon.

For the first bit of magic in this show, we have the animals.  Multiple animals, the tiger, a zebra, an orangutan, a goat, and more, all portrayed by some incredible puppets with the operators on stage.  If you’ve seen the outstanding puppetry in “War Horse” or “The Lion King”, you know what I mean.  And these puppeteers manage the moves and vocalizations beautifully.  Right down to a simple tail flick or growl, you lose the people on stage and are left with a living, breathing animal.  Specifically, the operators for Richard Parker, the tiger, (Ben Durocher, Shiloh Goodin, and Anna Leigh Gortner) manage some incredible feats bringing this wild beast to vivid life.  And the puppet design by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, and movement direction by Caldwell is stunning.  And when combined with the human staging by Max Webster and the fantastic set from Tim Hatley, and lights from Tim Lutkin and Tim Deiling, we have a fully realized world of wonder to carry this brutal and heart wrenching story.

And speaking of brutal and heart wrenching, Mandviwala as young Pi brings in a mesmerizing performance. The entire ensemble in this piece is from the theater gods, but Mandviwala is tasked with carrying the show. Rarely leaving stage and often the only human character out there, his stage presence knows no bounds as he draws the audience in from the top and keeps them locked in like a tiger, its jaws clamped down on a goat’s neck.  This emotionally and physically exhausting performance is one for the books and one that demands to be seen by all. 

Yes, there are animals and puppets, but this scintillating story might not be for the younger theatergoers as it does get fairly violent, but for us adults, you’re in for a night on the edge of your seat as you watch this riveting story burst forth.  And so, with my three-letter rating system, I give “Life of Pi” at the Paramount a must see of a YAY+.  This is theatrical storytelling at its best.

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