And we’re off! Culture in 2024 begins! And it starts at the Bristol Hippodrome for another touring theatre production; this time - Life Of Pi.
I’m coming in blind to this, having never read the book or seen the film, but I have the vague headlines to hand - boy stranded on boat with animals after a shipwreck, cool, crack on.
It’s… it’s not the best thing I’ve seen at the Hippodrome. It’s alright, I think. Let’s start with the good stuff - the puppetry is excellent, and the set design of the boat being formed around the bed with the shell of it split in two and moved on and off stage is clever. But yeah, something is falling down somewhere between the writing, directing, and performances. I can’t quite put my finger on which, but it comes across very… stagey? Hard to ascribe the blame. But I remain broadly unconvinced throughout.
Right towards the end, all of two minutes before it was all going to wrap up, the show is stopped. The boat components are not coming apart as they should be. I can first tell something has gone wrong when someone in black wearing a headset has appeared on stage also trying to shift the boat. Eventually, the safety curtain comes down, the house lights come up, and an announcement comes over the tannoy explaining that the show has been paused. It’s maybe the most exciting thing of the night. A few minutes later, the show - or what’s left of it - goes on.
The irony, of course, is that they’d have been much better served had they stopped it there, because the ending is awful, patronising, and unsubtle. Not to spoil a film that’s over 10 years old and a book that’s even older, but obviously - obviously! - the animals aren’t animals, they’re real people that the kid is trying to forget were real people to deal with the trauma of it all. It’s treated like it’s a twist, which, no? It’s damningly self-evident - maybe more so based on the dual casting/puppetry, but still.