Lolita Chakrabarti’s play Life of Pi, based on a 2001 novel by Yann Martel (that was also made into a 2012 movie), is a remarkable piece of stagecraft using remarkable puppetry to portray an astonishing array of animals, most particularly a Royal Bengal tiger, but including butterflies, a giraffe, a goat, a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, monkeys and meerkats. A touring production of this award-winning production is currently onstage at downtown Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center for the Arts, presented by Broadway in Cincinnati.
This menagerie is used to tell the story of Pi Patel, a 17-year-old boy from Pondicherry, India, who has survived a shipwreck. He and his family were traveling to Canada with animals from his father’s zoo when the ship was lost at sea. Pi is the only survivor, and the play opens with him being interviewed by two people trying to understand what happened to him. He relates a fantastic tale about his 227 days lost at sea in a lifeboat with some of the animals, especially Richard Parker, a fierce Bengal tiger. (The tiger’s unusual name is the result of a clerical error confusing the name of a hunter with the magnificent deadly beast.)
We are given the option of accepting Pi’s unbelievable story or one that’s more mundane. Magical realism is the operative factor in his telling, made visually striking by an incredible array of puppets and puppeteers. They are both imaginatively captivating and strikingly believable, even as the people operating them are partially visible. Three people animate Richard Parker, and at least a dozen others silently and gracefully move on and off the stage as the story is told.
Tawa Mandviwala, a graduate of the University of Kentucky and a one-time acting intern at the Cincinnati Playhouse, plays Pi. He conveys both the boy’s fragility and his strong, idealized beliefs (he’s interested in God regardless of three different religious traditions that vie for his faith — Catholic, Hindu and Muslim). He has his boundless energy, but he struggles with making moral choices — his battles with the tiger also serve as metaphors for his own emotions. He is continuously onstage and almost always in motion. Mandviwala delivers a strong sense of the boy’s moral fiber, since he is a committed vegetarian struggling for survival with a fearsome carnivore. It’s a remarkable performance.
Broadway in Cincinnati generally produces touring musical theater productions, but Life of Pi is a spectacular play using the full array of scenic, lighting and sound design that are trademarks of the Broadway and London stages. This show originated in England and won the 2022 Olivier Award as the season’s best new play. It’s at the Aronoff Center only briefly, but it’s one of the most memorable productions seen there in years. Make the effort to see it — you’ll remember this stunning production long after other works of singing and dancing.
Life of Pi contains several scenes of animal violence and death. They are handled somewhat symbolically, but they are shocking, nevertheless. For that reason, the play is recommended for audiences of at least 13 years of age.
Life of Pi, presented by Broadway in Cincinnati at the Aronoff Center, continues through Sunday, Feb. 9. Tickets: 513-621-2787 or CincinnatiArts.org.
This article appears in Feb 5-18, 2025.