Life of Pi

 Life of Pi
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
April 9, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Life of Pi

The Broadway production of Life of Pi is a truly mesmerizing theatrical experience.  If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you know the story. This production takes it all to another level.  Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation is concise and engaging.  The illusions are spectacular.  The puppetry design by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell is inventive and precise.  The video design and animation by Andrzej Goulding combine with Tim Lutkin’s lighting and Carolyn Downing’s sound design to give the story dimension and life.  The cast and puppeteers are phenomenal, fully in sync and consistently unified. Director Max Webster pulls it all together to tell this tale of survival, faith, and persistence in the most remarkable way possible. 

Pi (played by Hiran Abeysekera) is the single survivor of a cargo ship that sunk on its way from India to Canada.  After over two hundred days in a life boat, he washes up on a beach in Mexico.  While recovering in a hospital, he is interviewed by Mr. Okamoto (played by Daisuke Tsuji), a representative from the shipping line, and Lulu Chen (played by Kristin Louie), the Canadian Ambassador to Mexico.  They need to document the facts surrounding the ship’s sinking.  Pi begins his story in India, where his family owned a zoo.  Due to diminishing attendance, Pi’s father (played by Rajesh Bose) purchases a Bengal Tiger to hopefully bring in the crowds.  To demonstrate how dangerous the tiger is, Pi’s Father feeds him a goat.  Pi witnesses the tiger kill and devour the goat.  The lesson is learned.  Pi fully understands.  

Photo courtesy of Life of Pi

When Pi’s family decides to emigrate to Canada to escape the political unrest in India, they take the animals with them on a cargo ship.  When the ship sinks during a storm, Pi finds himself on a life boat in the middle of the ocean with an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, and the Bengal Tiger.

Hiram Abeysekera portrays Pi as an impressive and ambitious seventeen year old.  His life in India is, as he says, “idyllic.”  He is educated, logical, and passionate.  He is eager and open to experiencing all the world has to offer.  Mr. Abeysekera enacts every detail of Pi’s story with agility, clarity, and precision.  He questions and explores.  He skillfully pulls back to draw the audience in, then freely opens up to relieve the tension.  He delivers a truly inspired performance.  The audience follows him, cares for him, and feels with him.     

Photo courtesy of Life of Pi

Every moment of spectacle in this production serves the telling of the story.  The audience is transported to a dangerous and mystical world.  

Don’t miss Life of Pi.  Get your ticket today!

Domenick Danza