Following on from its Broadway premiere this Spring, Life of Pi, which comes to Hull in 2024, is celebrating after scooping a trio of gongs at this year’s Tony Awards.
The creative team behind Lolita Chakrabarti’s dazzling Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel, romped to success in three of its five nominated categories, scoring Best Scenic Design of a Play (Tim Hatley and Andrzej Goulding), Best Lighting Design of a Play (Tim Lutkin) and Best Sound Design of a Play (Carolyn Downing).
The success comes hot on the tail of its Olivier Awards recognition in April 2022. As well as Best New Play, and Best Actor for Hiran Abeysekera (the original Pi), in an historic first for the Oliviers, the seven performers who puppeteer the Tiger ‘Richard Parker’ were collectively awarded Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The production also picked up awards for set (Tim Hatley, Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell), and lighting design (Tim Lutkin and Andrzej Goulding).
Producer, Simon Friend said: “It is wonderful that the Broadway community has honoured Life of Pi as they have done. It has been an enormous privilege to take this show on the very long journey since we opened at the Crucible [in 2019], and we’re particularly excited to bring it to audiences around the UK over the coming year.”
Based on one of the best-loved works of fiction – winner of the Man Booker Prize, selling over fifteen million copies worldwide – Life of Pi, starring a life-sized puppeteered Bengal Tiger, is a breath-taking new theatrical adaptation of an epic journey of endurance and hope.
After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there are five survivors stranded on a single lifeboat – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, a sixteen-year-old boy and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive?
Life of Pi comes to Hull New Theatre from Monday 25 to Saturday 30 March 2024. Tickets are on sale now. Book at the Hull City Hall box office, call 01482 300 306, or visit www.hulltheatres.co.uk to book online.