Man’s complex relationship with the natural world—and more specifically, with animals—is the heart of “Life of Pi.” Yann Martel brought the original story to life in his best-selling novel, which later received an award-winning film adaptation. The imaginative nature of books and movies go hand-in-hand, as computer-generated imagery (CGI) and animation can make nearly any scenario look like reality.
But what happens when you bring these stories onto a stage? How do you translate the danger of being trapped in a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, and Bengal tiger to a live audience—and make them believe you? You need expertly constructed puppets, brought to life by a talented cast of puppeteers.
At least, such is the case for the touring Broadway production of “Life of Pi,” currently running at the Orpheum Theatre through March 9.
Photo by Evan Zimmerman
At a recent media event with cast and crew members, puppet captain/assistant puppetry and movement director Betsy Rosen explained the puppet team consists of eight people that rotate through the various animal characters, but every actor on stage engages in puppetry of some kind. “When the ship blows apart, there are pieces of the ship that fly through the air,” she explains. “There’s puppetry all throughout the show, in addition to the animals.”
We had the opportunity to get an up-close look at the puppet for Richard Parker, the tiger, which is one of the most important elements of the production. It’s a true feat of technical design and construction, but even more so, a testament to the talent of the puppeteers who bring him to life every night. Richard Parker seemingly walks, breathes, and roars like a live tiger—and when his head turns in your direction, you have to remind yourself that you’re not staring down the muzzle of a real jungle cat.
“We’re not trying to ‘Disney-fy’ the animals. We’re really trying to give it that sense of danger, high stakes, and physical weight, like the physics of this animal being something that could harm you,” explains Taha Mandviwala, who plays Pi Patel in the show. “My belief in the high stakes is something that I hope the audience gets to embrace as well.”
Photo by Evan Zimmerman
Richard Parker is operated by three puppeteers in different positions: the head, the heart, and the hind. The head puppeteer manipulates the head and holds the spine in place; the heart puppeteer is tucked entirely “inside” the tiger, with its spine draped across their back, and manipulates the front paws; and the hind puppeteer move the back legs and tail.
All three puppeteers are wearing microphones to create the tiger’s grunts, growls, breaths, and roars live on stage—which also means they can’t speak to one another. Working together as one, they rely on nonverbal cues and communication to be in sync and create consistency of movement and emotion through the tiger’s entire body. “It’s a crazy thing to be able to communicate with each other through breath and physicality for two hours,” says Aaron Haskell, head puppeteer.
“We do what we call ‘passing the ball,'” Haskell explains. “When the tiger sees something, the audience will see how it makes the tiger feel through its breath, which then passes down into the heart, and the finalization of that feeling comes through the tail, where you’ll really be able to see if it’s scared, sad, happy, excited, or bored.”
Photo by Macy Harder
Listening to each other is key in terms of being able to accurately relay the tiger’s emotions, especially for hind puppeteer Anna Leigh Gortner. “It’s the most important thing… I have to stay in sync,” she says. “I find a lot of fun personality through the tail, just like with any animal. When Richard Parker’s scared, I might tuck the tail. When he’s excited, the tail will perk up. It’s really just listening listening and following whatever Aaron’s cueing in the front.”
Besides the interpretive challenges, the role of the puppeteers is also quite physically demanding. “I enjoy pushing my physical limits and finding new ways to do the same thing, but with different physical engagement or thought processes,” says Anna Vomáčka, heart puppeteer. “I think what’s so important in this work is our connectedness. So really trying to attune and listen to the other two people, having an awareness of my kinesphere, and including these two humans within that.”
Then, throw in the challenge of working as Richard Parker with other actors on stage—most notably Mandviwala, whom the cast and crew refer to as the “fourth puppeteer.” “It’s much easier to get lost in acting alongside the tiger. It’s easy to look for the physicality of the beast and playing off of what is given to me,” says Mandviwala. “When knowing this thing could kill you at any time, it really does require you to have a deeply grounded presence in what you’re doing.”
To experience the wonder of Richard Parker and the other puppets for yourself, tickets for “Life of Pi” are available for purchase online.
