Tony Award wins for smash hit play Life of Pi, touring to Northampton next spring

Life of Pi - Broadway production. Photography by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for Murphy Made

The spellbinding show Life of Pi continues its award-winning success with three wins at the 2023 Tony Awards, after making its Broadway premiere this spring. The play comes to Royal & Derngate in April 2024.

Opening to celebratory reviews on Broadway in March, Lolita Chakrabarti’s dazzling Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation of Life of Pi, starring an extraordinary life-size puppeteered Bengal Tiger, was celebrated at the Tony Awards on Sunday, winning three of its five nominated categories: Best Scenic Design of a Play (Tim Hatley & Andrzej Goulding) and Best Lighting Design of a Play (Tim Lutkin) and Best Sound Design of a Play (Carolyn Downing).

Life of Pi made its Broadway premiere at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater where it opened on 9 March 2023. The show’s full list of nominations at this year’s Tony Awards was: Best Direction (Max Webster), Best Costume Design (Tim Hatley, Nick Barnes & Finn Caldwell, Life of Pi); Best Scenic Design of a Play (Tim Hatley & Andrzej Goulding) and Best Lighting Design of a Play (Tim Lutkin) and Best Sound Design of a Play (Carolyn Downing).

Producer, Simon Friend says of recent wins: “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, and we’re particularly excited to bring it to audiences around the UK over the coming year.”

Life of Pi won five Olivier Awards in April 2022. As well as Best New Play, and Best Actor for Hiran Abeysekera (the original Pi); in an historic first for the Olivier Awards - 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).

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 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 vast 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?For its first-ever tour of the UK and Ireland, Simon Friend Entertainment recently announced that Divesh Subaskaran will make his professional debut in the central role of Pi.

He is joined by Antony Antunes, who performs as Tiger Hind / Cook / Father Martin, Adwitha Arumugam as Pi Alternate, Bhawna Bhawsar as Lulu Chen/Mrs Biology Kumar, Ralph Birtwell as Mamaji/ Admiral Balbir Singh, Kriss Dosanjh as Father, Sebastian Goffin as Tiger Head, Akash Heer as Tiger Head, Romina Hytten as Tiger Heart and Hind, Katie Kennedy-Rose as Tiger Heart and Hind, Aizah Khan as Tiger Heart and Hind, Chand Martinez as Pandit-ji, Keshini Misha as Rani, Goldy Notay as Amma, Sharita Oomeer as Lulu Chen / Mrs Biology Kumar, Kate Rowsell as Tiger Heart and Hind, Lilian Tsang as Mrs Okamoto/Zaida Khan/Ships Captain, Peter Twose and Tiger Head/Voice of Richard Parker/Cook/Father Martin.

Following its opening in Sheffield in August, the tour will then continue to tour until June 2024, coming to Northampton’s Royal & Derngate from Tuesday 2 to Saturday 6 April. More information about the Northampton dates can be found on the theatre’s website, www.royalandderngate.co.uk

Life of Pi, which concluded its West End run on 15 January 2023, first opened to critical acclaim at the Crucible theatre in Sheffield in 2019. International commitments for the show include its North American Premiere at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University where it ran from 4 December 2022 to 29 January 2023, followed by its Broadway premiere at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater where it opened on 9 March 2024.

The production is directed by Max Webster, Set and Costume Designer is Tim Hatley, the Puppet Designers are Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, the Puppet and Movement Director is Finn Caldwell, the Video Designer is Andrzej Goulding, the Lighting Designer is Tim Lutkin, the Sound Designer is Carolyn Downing, the Composer is Andrew T Mackay,

Life of Pi is produced by Simon Friend in association with Playing Field and Tulchin/Bartner.