“I have a story that will make you believe in God.”
This instantly recognisable line, one of the most famous in modern book publishing, is what sets off the story of Life of Pi, Yann Martel’s Man Booker-winning 2001 novel. More than 20 years later, while watching the multiple Tony and Olivier award-winning stage adaptation of the beloved novel, that has just opened at Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, I think to myself: here is a play that will also make you believe—in storytelling, stagecraft, magic, and your own imagination.
First, the basics. The plot follows Piscine Molitor (Pi) Patel, a teenage boy in the 1970s who is moving with his family from Pondicherry, where his father owns a zoo, to Canada. A storm strikes and their ship sinks, leaving Pi as the sole human survivor. His 227-day ordeal of being marooned at sea with an adult Bengal tiger forms the rest of the plot. But not the story. Because while Pi’s specific circumstances are unique, his story is universal. It is a tale of faith, loss, ruminations of life, and human nature. As you can imagine, none of this is easy to show on stage. And while Ang Lee's film still managed to retain the meditative stillness and solitude of the book, theatre is a whole other ballgame.
Read Samira Sood's thoughts on the play and her chat with the incredibly talented people behind the scenes, who are bringing Life of Pi to life.
