Spellbinding puppetry brings Pi's plight to life

IF you have never read Yann Martel's novel, or watched the 2012 Ang Lee movie, you should first know that 'Pi' is short for Piscine; the rather odd name given to an Indian boy whose family run a zoo.

THEATRE REVIEW: LIFE OF PI

Theatre Royal Plymouth, until Saturday 

Named after his uncle's favourite Parisian swimming pool, Piscine shortens his name to avoid bullying in his school in Pondicherry.

Referencing a time in India when communities were torn apart by violent religious clashes, Pi's family idyll is ended by a national emergency that leads them to emigrate. They board a Japanese cargo ship heading for Canada, with their zoo animals in the hold.

The only problem is that the cargo ship sinks in a storm, and Pi wakes up in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean, with an ailing zebra, an orang-utan and a sharp-toothed hyena for company a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker (don't ask) fighting to get on board too.