Taha Mandviwala, Shiloh Goodin, Savidu Geevaratne, and Toussaint Jeanlouis Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Life of Pi on stage is the same incredible story–by turns challenging and intoxicating–as in the book (albeit, with snips among the details here and there) told with stagecraft of such wondrous genius that even without a story, just sitting at the Orpheum Theatre through its two acts replete with lights, puppetry, scenic elements, costuming, sound and underscoring would be show enough to be worth the price of a ticket. The combined effect is a feast for the eyes, ears, mind and soul. I only regret that it's not around for longer than a week so that I can urge more of my fellow theatregoers to see it.

The play opens in 1978 with sixteen-year-old Pi Patel in a Mexican hospital recovering from severe physical and emotional trauma after being adrift at sea in a lifeboat for 227 days. He relates his story, which begins a couple of years earlier in Pondicherry, India, a large city on the far southern coast of the Bay of Bengal. Pi's family operate a zoo where he has grown up with an idyllic life among the animals, shielded by bars from those that pose danger. Pi is a deep thinker–not only for a boy his age, but for anyone. He seeks truth and knowledge of God, so much so that in addition to practicing his family's Hinduism, he studies Islam with an imam and Christianity with a priest, much to his parents' dismay.

In 1976, civic unrest broke out throughout India and then-premier Indira Ghandi declared a national emergency. With worsening rioting, shortages, and other problems, Pi's father decides the family must leave India. He books passage for them on a freighter, along with their animals crated in boxes, to Canada, where he will deliver the animals to a buyer and establish a new life for his family.

Several days out from the Philippines, the ship is assaulted by a brutal storm. Pi manages to land in a lifeboat, but without any others of his family or the freighter's crew. With him on the boat is a gravely wounded zebra named Black and White, an orangutan named Orange Juice, and a hyena. The carnivorous hyena has the upper hand against the two herbivores and soon it is just the hyena and Pi ... that is, until one last fellow survivor makes his appearance–a huge Bengal tiger with the unlikely name Richard Parker.

The rest of Pi's adventure chronicles how he manages to live with a fierce predator for seven months until their craft runs aground on Mexico's Pacific coast. Those hearing his story–an insurance adjustor for the sunken freighter, a resettlement agent from the Canadian embassy, and a nurse–have strong doubts about its truth. Pi then tells them an alternate story, that just as easily could explain what happened during his many months adrift. His listeners–which now include all of us in the audience–must face the puzzling question of what makes one of the two the "better" story, and where does truth–something Pi was always in search of–enter into the equation?

Chakrabarti's adaptation draws heavily upon the plotting and dialogue in Martel's novel, which is all to the good, though by necessity, both are somewhat abridged on stage. The animal characters are performed using life-sized puppets, designed by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, with Caldwell directing their on-stage movement. Most of the puppets require more than one puppeteer to animate them, yet the puppets are so exquisitely designed and their handlers so nimble and discretely costumed (by Tim Hatley) that for the entirety of the show, all we see are the creatures–tiger, zebra, hyena, orangutan, goat, fish leaping out of the sea, and others. Out of a team of eight puppeteers, it takes three dedicated to Richard Parker to bring him to life at each performance. At the opening night performance, Shiloh Goodin, Aaron Haskell, and Anna Vomácka were the tiger's handlers, conveying his every movement with grace and a sense of deliberate thought whirring in this great creature's mind.

None of this is meant as a slight to the human actors on stage, who form a wonderful ensemble, most especially Taha Mandviwala as Pi. Mandviwala has a handsome and charming stage presence. His bio cites him as an athlete as well as an actor, which explains the buoyancy of his frequent leaps about the stage–early on as a frisky adolescent, and facing-off against Richard Parker, always staying a step ahead of the tiger's jaws. His vocal expression is similarly agile, inserting humor where it naturally emerges, and conveying a range of emotions, from grief over the loss of his family, to despair after many days at sea without fresh water, to regret over violating his Hindu vows of vegetarianism. Constantly on stage, Mandviwala's is a spectacular performance that never flags.

He is supported by the other excellent ensemble members, with kudos especially to Ben Durocher as the freighter's surly cook and also as the voice (heard by a delusional Pi) of Richard Parker; Sorab Wadia as Pi's practical-minded father bent on teaching his son critical life-lessons; Jessica Angleskhan as Pi's nurturing Amma and the rehab nurse; Sharayu Mahale as Pi's mocking older sister, Rani; Mi Kang as resettlement agent Lulu Chen, Pi's teacher Mrs. Biology Kumar, and his exuberant aunty Zaida Khan; and Alan Ariano as the skeptical insurance adjuster Mr. Okamoto.

Tim Hatley's costume designs are wonderful throughout, not only the gray garb that enables the puppeteers to disappear, but the colorful array of costumes reflecting Pi's family and the street life of Pondicherry, the freighter's crew, and Pi dressed in unblemished white. Hatley also designed the scenery, which wondrously transforms the drabness of a rehab medical ward into the vibrant bustle of a zoo, with the lifeboat that is the primary setting for much of the play able to disassemble and reunite in accordance with Pi's narrative.

Andrzej Goulding's video and animation designs beautifully embellish the set to create the swell of the ocean, the pounding of a rainstorm, and numerous other images vital to the story. Tim Lutkin and Tim Deiling's lighting design moves in lockstep with the narrative, and Carolyn Downing's sound design makes each of the elements that confront Pi vividly audible, and delivers the evocative underscoring composed by Andrew T. Mackay with clarity.

Life of Pi is a visual banquet that left me giddy from its artistry, while pondering questions it raises about what constitutes truth–and whether our truth can be different than what really happened. What makes a story viable and meaningful? How do we use stories to distance ourselves from inconceivable realities? What would one be willing to do to survive? It feels like these inquiries are especially worth asking during a time when so much around us is being questioned and truth is being molded to fit one's own needs, sometimes consciously and sometimes unknowingly.

Life of Pi runs through March 9, 2025, at the Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis MN. For tickets and information, please call 612-339-7007 or visit hennepintheatretrust.org. For information on the tour, visit www.lifeofpibway.com.

Adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti from the novel by Yann Martel; Director: Max Webster; Tour Director: Ashley Brooke Monroe; Puppetry and Movement Direction: Finn Caldwell; Puppet Design: Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell; Scenic and Costume Design: Tim Hatley; Video and Animation Design: Andrzej Goulding; Lighting Design: Tim Lutkin and Tim Deiling; Sound Design: Carolyn Dowling; Hair and Wig Design: David Brian Brown, Meg Murphy; Composer: Andrew T. Mackay; Dramaturg: Jack Bradley; Global Associate Puppetry & Movement Director: Scarlet Wilderink; U.S. Associate Puppetry & Movement Director/Resident Director: Jon Hoche; Casting: ARC, Duncan Stewart SCA, Patrick Maravilla; Production Stage Manager: Kelsey Tippins.

Cast: Jessica Angleskhan (Amma/Nurse/Orange Juice), Alan Ariano (Mr. Okamoto/Captain/Jai), Pragun Bhardwaj (Richard SC), Ben Durocher (Cook/Voice of Richard Parker ensemble), Savidu Geevaratne (Pi alternate), Shiloh Goodin (Richard Parker/puppeteer/ensemble), Anna Leigh Gortner (Richard Parker/puppeteer/ensemble), Austin Wong Harper (Richard Parker puppeteer/ensemble), Aaron Haskell (Richard Parker/puppeteer/ensemble), Jon Hoche (swing), Rishi Jaiswal (Monomaniacs-Ji), Toussaint Jeanlouis (Cook/Richard Parker/puppeteer/ensemble), Mi Kang (Lulu Chen/Mrs. Biology Kumar/Zaida Khan), Intae Kim (swing), Sharayu Mahale (Rani), Taha Mandviwala (Pi), Sinclair Mitchell (Admiral Jackson/Russian Sailor/Father Martin), Maya Rangulu (swing), Betsy Rosen (Richard Parker/puppeteer/ensemble), Anna Vomácka (Richard Parker puppeteer/ ensemble), Sorab Wadia (Father).