Bursting into life at the Wales Millennium Centre this week, the award winning Life Of Pi opens its doors for a week of jaw dropping effects, heartwarming moments and heartbreaking revelations. The adaptation of Life Of Pi from best selling book has already been a huge success with the film by visionary director Ang Lee and starring Suraj Sharma that captured the imagination of the world in 2012. Now it’s time for Cardiff to see this spellbinding performance up close.
The sheer joy of this show is the spectacular visuals and sounds brought to life so beautifully on stage. You would think a story that largely takes place on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with the majority of the characters being wild animals, could prove impossible to translate to the stage. But this production is nothing short of ground-breaking when it comes to innovation in puppetry and visual set pieces. It became so easy to lose yourself in the story that it genuinely began to feel like a real tiger was stalking the stage of the Donald Gordan theatre, waiting to pick off a stray member of the audience.
The whole cast were of course exceptional, as you would expect from such a critically acclaimed performance. Even as they doubled as characters and puppeteers, many of the cast flowed seamlessly across the stage, allowing you to engross yourself in this technicolour world come to life. But no one could outshine Divesh Subaskaran, in the lead role of Pi. His energy and horrified wonder tugged on our heartstrings and made us laugh in equal measure. For his debut production role, Divesh has proven that he is a force to be reckoned with on the theatrical scene.
Overall, I could not get enough of Life Of Pi. It is nothing short of a visual marvel that truly captures your imagination and holds you spell bound throughout the entire performance. You’ll be picking your jaw off the floor before the final curtain falls and your head will be filled with wonder from the spectacle you have just witnessed.
