Regional Premiere: Life of Pi at A.R.T.

The North American Premiere of Life of Pi captures Yann Martel’s timeless story through captivating scenic design and expressive puppetry.

I was so thrilled to be able to catch Life of Pi at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge! This North American premiere comes after sound reviews in the West End and ahead of its transfer to Broadway in spring 2023. I wanted to try something a little bit different—if you’ve been around for a minute, you might notice I don’t typically go for straight plays as much as I do musicals. However, with Life of Pi, I was already familiar with the story, and I had heard so many great things about the production and puppetry.

I think this stage adaptation uses theatre as a medium really well, and I actually enjoyed this production a lot more than I thought I was going to. I have been trying to stretch out of my comfort zone and try more plays, and this was something I might have brushed over if it was on Broadway and I had a full selection of shows to see. It’s convenience to proximity made it something I was willing to try and I’m glad I did.

One of the most impressive parts of this production to me was the scenic design. This was a little bit surprising to me but I was floored with how smooth the choreography of changing the scenes was and how easily the story flipped between the hospital room and Pi’s story on the boat. It is clear the transitions are a well-oiled machine from the West End production and it really makes this production so stunning.

Of course, next on the list, we can’t talk about Life of Pi without talking about the puppets. These were another very impressive part of the production and made it feel very theatrical. Many of the animals required two or three people to move and they were so fluid in movement at times they looked like real animals. Part of what is so interesting about this production is to your eye as an audience member, you know these are puppets, but they illustrate Pi’s oral retelling of the story so well it really heightens the use of theatrics and it makes telling this story on stage make sense.

I also really enjoyed the acting in this production. It was a little bit different for me, as I’m mostly used to musical performances, so I have kind of a gauge in my mind of what is impressive to see on stage. However, with a play, it felt entirely different. I was impressed with Adi Dixit’s performance as the titular character Pi, as he captured Pi’s boyish innocence and how his innocence extinguished as days passed on the boat. I was also very touched by Mahira Kakkar’s performance as Amma. I thought it was very smart the way the production uses the family members you see earlier in the story as sort of ghost characters who Pi envisions are talking to him as he’s on the life boat. Again, a very smart use of the stage medium and how you convey these sort of things with the limitations of the stage.

I typically don’t like to compare productions of different shows because I always feel like they’re apples and oranges, but in recent years we have seen so many theatrical adaptations of other media. I have found myself a bit exhausted with adaptations—especially after this year—so I want to highlight a few things Life of Pi does well to adapt to the medium.

I touched on this a little bit in my recent post about Almost Famous, where one of the takeaways I had was questioning why the story needed to be adapted to the stage. I think Life of Pi contrasts this by proving how a story can be adapted to the stage in a way that gives new life to the source material. Life of Pi takes advantage of the stage and the opportunities to make the story visually compelling, including the use of scenic design and puppetry. The story then becomes a vehicle to showcase some amazing work bringing the story to life. I thought Life of Pi was a really well done adaptation, wherein I could feel the emotional pull and designing this story for the stage has opened it up to whole new audiences to experience it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this production, and I definitely recommend if you’re in the Cambridge area, or in NYC in 2023. I definitely think Life of Pi is going to be a high contender in the scenic design, and I am so excited for more people to be able to see this production!