TWISTING YARN’S EXCLUSIVE STAGE PRODUCTION -
LIFE OF PI
by YANN MARTEL (Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize for Fiction)
Pontardawe Arts Centre
Tuesday 1st May at 1pm & 7.30pm, Wednesday 2nd May at 7.30pm
Box Office: 01792 863722
www.npt.gov.uk/theatres
Tickets: £9 £7 Concessions £5 Student/Child
Twisting Yarn Theatre Company will be touring its exclusive production of Life of Pi, the 2002 Booker prize winning novel by Yann Martel, for the second time. The only company in the UK permitted to stage the story, they will tour the production to 9 venues across Britain, including Pontardawe Arts Centre, Swansea.
Twisting Yarn’s Artistic Director, Keith Robinson, initially approached the Canadian author to see if he would allow the novel to be adapted into a stage play after reading it on holiday. Martel liked both the idea and the sound of the company’s work, and agreed to the project subject to his agents' approval.
Life of Pi charts the adventures of Pi, a 16 year old Indian boy, a Hindu who unusually embraces Christianity and Islam in his search for one God. His family owns a zoo in Pondicherry, southern India, but decides to emigrate to Canada, taking some of the animals with them. The ship they travel on sinks and Pi finds himself sharing a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, a female orang utan, a 450-pound royal Bengal tiger, his imagination and his faith.
“At Twisting Yarn we usually create and devise our own theatre, which is always multi-cultural and often multi-lingual to reflect the cultural make-up and diversity that is, specifically, Bradford, but is also inherent in many other towns and cities across the UK. As soon as I read Life of Pi I thought this was exactly the sort of story that our company should be telling,” reflects director, Keith Robinson.
In Autumn 2004 the company staged several public performances of the production, in the 160-seat Alhambra Studio Theatre, all of which saw totally packed houses. They ran numerous sell-out performances for schoolchildren from the Bradford district, as well as touring the production to 4 venues across the UK.
Gaining the exclusive rights to perform the story is a great coup for Twisting Yarn. Martel did not charge the company to use his novel as he recognised the merits of what they do.
Life of Pi is an adventure which challenges children and adults alike. A story of self-exploration and survival, it will make you question your own beliefs and views of the world. The show features a fantastic and inventive set, including a half-size lifeboat, and requires considerable creative and physical movement from the actors.
“I loved it…. I thought they did such an extraordinary job.”
YANN MARTEL, AUTHOR OF LIFE OF PI (Dec 2004)
“What a superb production this is. Any child who sees The Life of Pi will be enthused with theatre forever.” KEVIN BERRY – THE STAGE (Dec 2003) |
