Later, the tiger turns into an actual human being. We watch as the animal’s fear and distress move subtly towards indifference and finally capitulation. Pi realises that he must dominate his companion or be eaten by him so he blows a whistle and waves an oar aggressively in his face. These moods are so brilliantly conveyed that the tiger seems human. Then, after a meal of fish, he lapses into satiety and sleepfulness. Anger, bemusement, disorientation and raging hunger. Later, on the life raft, he experiences a variety of emotions. We first see him as he prowls on stage and eyes up the unsuspecting goat. The inmates of the zoo seem to be living, breathing, sweating animals (The larger beasts are more convincing than the smaller ones because their bulk obscures the puppeteers as they work the illusion.) The inmates of the zoo seem to be living, breathing, sweating animals. Tim Hatley, along with puppeteers Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, have laid on a stunning array of models and lighting tricks. How could a designer create the props and special effects required to make this sprawling and chaotic action work? Well, the miracle happened. These spectacular scenes are tricky enough for a novelist to describe but to put them on stage seems an act of madness. And when the ship sinks, Pi finds himself on a life raft alongside an orangutan, a zebra with a broken leg, and the Bengal tiger. The beasts break out of their cages and start to eat each other. Next they take a ship to Canada, with the zoo stowed in the luggage hold, but the vessel hits stormy weather. The new arrival promptly rips the head off Pi’s pet goat and eats it. The family own a failing zoo and they buy a Bengal tiger to attract fresh customers. The action starts in southern India where we meet a precocious teenager, Piscine, who tells his parents that he wants to be known as Pi. Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi is a complicated organism.
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