Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Max Webster, Sharmill Films.
The magic of theatre is transformed on screen and will make you a believer after seeing The Life of Pi.
Puppetry, magic and storytelling combine in a unique, Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of the best-selling novel.
When a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a 16-year-old boy named Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, and the question in everyone’s mind is who will survive?
Filmed live in London’s West End and featuring state-of-the-art visuals, the epic journey of endurance and hope is bought to life in a breath-taking new way for cinema screens.
Life of Pi is a play based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Yann Martel, adapted for the stage by Lolita Chakrabarti.
It is directed by award-winning theatre director Max Webster alongside starring lead Hiran Abeysekera. Other cast include Mina Anwar, Kate Colebrook, Kammy Darweish, Fred Davis, Tara Divina, Tom Espiner, Raj Ghatak, Owain Gwyn, Syreeta Kumar, David Ks Tse, Habib Nasib Nader and Gabby Wong.
Captured live from the Olivier stage at the National Theatre London, music is by Andrew T. Mackay and Carolyn Downing is responsible for sound design. Set and costume is by Tim Hatley, puppetry and movement by Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes, video by Andzrej Goulding and Tim Lutkin has done the lighting.
The power of theatre is wonderful!
- Life of Pi is screening in select cinemas
