‘Life of Pi’ Screening for Drama Scholar and Enrichment Students 

Scholarship and enrichment Drama students from Years 7 to 13 enjoyed a live production screening of Life of Pi in Seckford Theatre earlier this week, treated to cookies and hot chocolate while they watched.   

After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a 16 year old boy named Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Royal Bengal tiger.  Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive? 

Filmed live in London’s West End and featuring state-of-the-art visuals, the epic journey of endurance and hope is bought to life in a breath-taking new way.  Year 9’s Giles has reviewed the production. 

 
Year 9’s Giles 

The screening of the Life of Pi for the Drama Enrichment programme was single handedly amazing, (what a great choice by the Drama Department!).  As I was watching this brilliant performance, I needed to be reminded to pick my jaw up off of the floor multiple times. 

My favourite part about the play was the staging and the puppetry.  Although the acting was superb and the actors knew their roles very well, the thing that made this amazing play stand out was the immense staging and intricate puppetry. 

The stage incorporated the lifeboat that Pi, Richard Parker (the Bengal tiger that Pi tamed on the boat) and the remaining survivors of the shipwreck, were in for the adventure.  This wasn’t just any boat however, it rose up out of the stage in a short time making transitions slick and smooth and allowed for more space for acting during the other scenes.  There was also a hidden trap door on the stage which was used for when Pi was jumping into the water, he then came up through a different trapdoor on the other side of the stage.  This worked seamlessly and looked so realistic. 

The puppetry that was made to play the animals was out of this world and it looked like there were actual creatures on the stage, with two or three people controlling each one.  Their use of breath and more subtle movements made it look like there were real animals on stage.  When the tiger came from around the corner I genuinely gasped because I thought that they had just brought a real tiger onto the stage. 

Overall this play is a must see if you can and I would watch it over and over again, being dazzled every time.