It was the book that couldn’t be filmed, and after it was filmed, it was the film that couldn’t be staged and now it is showing at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End with exemplary staging.

I am publishing this review with more pictures than I have ever used because the impact of Life of Pi  is about the feelings and the visuals of the magnificent animals created by Finn Caldwell and his team of puppeteers.  I just couldn’t bear to call the War Horse horses, puppets, because they are altogether more impressive and equine than anything I’ve ever seen on stage and similarly I was blown away here by Richard Parker the tiger, the zebras and terrified by the hyena.

The play opens in a hospital ward in Mexico with a representative from the Canadian government Lulu Chen (Kirsten Foster) and a Japanese insurance loss adjuster Mr Okamoto (David KS Tse) who is investigating the cause of the sinking of the SS Tsimtsum in the Pacific Ocean.  Under the bed is hiding Piscine Patel, known as Pi, the only survivor.  Pi has lost his family and is understandably traumatised.