We got up close with the tiger from Life of Pi and our primal instincts kicked in

I don’t mind admitting, I jumped. I really didn’t think I would, because I knew that the Bengal tiger pacing towards me with menacing, staring eyes wasn’t real, but a masterful puppet operated by a team of puppeteer-actors.

Still, when that tiger suddenly rears up and roars at you, puppet or no, you feel a rush of something quite primal shooting through you.

That’s the magic of puppetry and theatre. That’s the magic being created by the team behind the new stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, which opened at the Theatre Royal on Monday [April 15].

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The production, the result of an adaptation by Lolita Chakrabarti, has already scooped Olivier and Tony Awards and been on a successful tour of the UK. And now it’s Nottingham’s turn. 

There aren’t many cast lists featuring actors in the role of “tiger heart and hind”, and “tiger head”. I met with one of those in the heart and hind role – also the puppet captain – Tom Stacy, and Adwitha Arumugam, stand-in for the character of Pi, appearing in her first show since drama school.

The animals on stage may be operated by a team of skilled puppeteers but, Tom Stacy assures me, that the experience is transcendental enough to let you see past that – if you’re willing to drift into their world.

 “It works really well in the theatrical space,” he says. “We’re bringing the audience in to imagine a play, imagine a story, and with puppetry we take pains to make it as real as we can and create a life. 

“But the final key element is the audience doing the same. They have to engage their imagination to bring it to life. 

“When the tiger is in pain the audience feel it. They can see the three people operating the tiger but amazingly they do disappear.”

Adapted from the best-selling 2001 novel by Canadian author Yann Martel, Life of Pi portrays the philosophical fable that plays out when a 16-year-old boy, Pi, becomes stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan – and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

Arumugam, on her first visit to Nottingham and first UK tour, is playing Pi this week. 

She says: “It’s a story about life. Everyone has something to take away from it, everyone has a different inference at the end of it. It’s just one of those things that everybody can relate to on some level. It’s about hope and love and big questions about life.”

“It’s really beautiful because as soon as you see these animals come on stage you believe that they’re animals. It’s true, it’s real. 

“You get immersed in it completely. All of your senses are engaged from the start to the end.”

To provide that level of reality is hard work, admits Stacy. But it’s necessary. Theatres are under increasing pressure to adapt and deliver more immersive experiences for audiences. 

It’s challenging, and a sign of the times, but Stacy says that in the process, actors are being taken back to some core values.

“These roles are physically demanding, he says. “There’s an element to puppetry where to making the image best for the audience means putting your body in uncomfortable positions. 

“But we’re finding this world where we can be theatrical again.”

Life of Pi is produced by Simon Friend in association with Playing Field and Tulchin/Bartner. The show will run until Saturday evening, April 20th. 

www.trch.co.uk Box Office 0115 989 5555