CCP NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: LIFE OF PI

PRESENTED BY:

The Cultural Center of the Philippines,

National Theatre Live, and and Ayala Malls Cinemas

DATE/ TIME/ VENUE:

September 26, 2023 | 5:30 PM

CCP @ the Ayala Malls Cinemas

Greenbelt 3 Cinema 1, Makati City

Running Time: 2 hours, 26 minutes

DESCRIPTION:

Puppetry, magic, and storytelling combine in a unique, Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of the best-selling novel. Filmed in stunning 4k, the story brought vividly to life. Puppetry, magic and storytelling combine in an epic journey of endurance and hope. 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?

Hiran Abeysekara (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) plays Pi Patel, joined on stage by Mina Anwar (The Thin Blue Line), Raj Ghatak (The Kite Runner), and Nicholas Khan (NT Live: The Beaux Stratagem). This epic staging of Yann Martel’s tale of endurance and hope is adapted by Lolita Chakrabati and directed by Max Webster (Henry V). The production has been met with strong critical acclaim across national press, including many five-star reviews. Filmed live in London’s West End and featuring state-of-the-art visuals, the epic journey of endurance and hope is brought to life in a breath-taking new way for cinemas screens. A production from Simon Friend Entertainment.

The Cultural Center of the Philippines’ NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE features the Philippine premiere of nine world-class stage plays, produced by the UK’s National Theatre and filmed live in high definition from its London stages and other venues.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Ticket Price:

Php 250 – Regular Price

Php 150 – Students

Discounts:

20%: Senior Citizen Discount for non-Makati residents & PWD

*All senior citizens with Makati resident IDs shall be allowed free entry as mandated by local government regulations;

Visit the ticket booth or book your tickets at www.sureseats.com.

PRESS REVIEWS:

★★★★★ ‘It will make you believe in theatre. A triumph’ (Sunday Times)

★★★★★ ‘A wonder to behold’ (Daily Mail)

★★★★★ ‘Everything about this production is amazing’ (Observer)

★★★★★ ‘A superlative stage adaptation’ (The Stage)

★★★★★ ‘Roar it out: This is a hit’ (Times)

SYNOPSIS:

 A young boy, Piscine Patel, known as Pi, grows up as the son of the manager of a zoo in Pondicherry, India. Pi is fascinated by the animals at the zoo, including a Royal Bengal tiger, called Richard Parker due to a clerical error in which the tiger’s name was switched with the name of its human captor. Raised a Hindu and a vegetarian, Pi contemplates the various benefits and drawbacks of different religions, to the dismay of his parents.

Pi’s father decides to sell the zoo and emigrate with his wif e and children to Canada. The family boards the Tsimtsum, a Japanese freighter transporting their animals to North America. On its journey, the ship encounters a storm and sinks, killing most of its occupants. Pi escapes in a small lifeboat alongside a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan, and the tiger. The hyena kills the zebra and the orangutan before Richard Parker kills and eats the hyena.

Pi slowly trains the tiger, using food to reinforce nonthreatening behavior. With resources low, Pi catches fish and eats a turtle with Richard Parker to stay alive. In a state of delirium, Pi hears what he believes to be the voice of Richard Parker talking back to him. It is actually the French cook from the ship, who tries to attack Pi but is instead himself killed by Richard Parker.

Later the boat comes ashore on an island inhabited by thousands of meerkats. Pi greedily eats the food available on the island, but upon realizing that the island is carnivorous he and Richard Parker are forced to return to the ocean. Eventually the boat washes up on a beach in Mexico. Richard Parker disappears into the jungle without looking back, while Pi is rescued by locals.

In the present, Pi is questioned by staff at a hospital, as he is the sole survivor of the shipwreck. They reject his story as unbelievable. Pi of f ers a second story, this time in which he is aboard the lifeboat with his mother, the ship’s cook, and a sailor with a broken leg. The cook kills the sailor and Pi’s mother before Pi finally kills the cook. The investigators note the parallels between the stories, realizing the hyena symbolizes the cook, the zebra the sailor, the orangutan Pi’s mother, and the tiger represents Pi. As neither story can be proven true, Pi asks the investigators which story they prefer. They choose the story with animals.