- LIFE OF PI
- Starlight Theater
- Kansas City, Missouri
As the last show of Starlight Theatre’s Broadway season, “Life of Pi,” which is playing through Sunday, ends summer with a tragic, yet magical journey across the vast Pacific Ocean. Filled with wonderful imagery, masterful puppetry, and a talented cast, “Life of Pi” is a production that is perhaps once of the most memorable to grace the Starlight stage.
Based upon the 2001 best-selling novel by Canadian author Yann Martel and the 2012 Oscar-nominated film adaptation by director Ang Lee, “Life of Pi” begins in India during the late 1970s. Political unrest forces the Patel family to make the difficult decision to leave their homeland for a better life in Canada where they hope to restart their zoo. Their plan goes tragically wrong when the cargo ship they are on sinks during a bad storm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Over 200 days later, an epic story of survival is told at a hospital in Mexico through the eyes of 16-year-old Pi Patel (Taha Mandviwala). Stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker – Pi recounts the trials and tribulations of being on the open ocean for so long as he continually sought out divine guidance. However, the question is whether the animals in his story were real.
Mandviwala is just as captivating as the puppetry and set that surrounds him. While his character can be a little annoying at times, Mandviwala pulls the audience with a performance that reminds us just how indomitable the human spirit can be in the face of great adversity. His choreography with the elaborate puppets is seamless throughout as he deftly balances his character’s sanity and delirium.
The set design that represents the ship is a little confusing, but it works, nonetheless, while the lighting certainly helps set the tone and mood of each scene. All in all, “Life of Pi” is a Broadway production that should not be missed during its time in KC.
For ticket information on upcoming shows on the tour, click HERE.
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