28 April 2023
On Tuesday, the Amey Theatre welcomed 250 students and staff from Fitzharrys, Larkmead and John Mason Schools for the third arts partnership NT Live screening of 2023. This new initiative, which complements the theatre’s now well-established programme of public screenings of National Theatre, Royal Opera House and RSC productions, came about in response to the increased challenges of taking school pupils to see live theatre performances, whether in London, or closer to home. Rising ticket prices and transport costs have made this a real issue for schools, and a reason why the chance to watch live theatre performances, albeit on a large screen, is proving so popular.
This week’s production was the NT’s wonderfully imaginative and critically acclaimed version of The Life of Pi, adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti from the best-selling novel by Yann Martel. The story features all manner of remarkable and hard-to-stage events, not the least of which are a zoo’s worth of wild animals, a sinking ship and – most famously – a lifeboat that Pi, the central character, shares with a ferocious Bengal tiger. Given a popular film version of the story was made in 2012, you might wonder what a stage adaptation could add to this charming tale. The answer, of course, is the chance to see the story’s characters brought to life in front of you, and experience the kind of conjuring magic that is always present in theatre at its best. In both respects, this production did not disappoint, as actors shared the stage with superb puppets and ingenious scenery of all shapes and sizes, along with some truly remarkable special effects to create the sea, the lifeboat and every other element the story required.
At the end of the show, throughout which the large student audience paid rapt attention, the response was uniformly enthusiastic. A colleague from one of the schools could not suppress a smile as she realised the production had enabled her to offer every pupil in her school the chance to experience a live theatre performance at some point this year, while one of her students spoke for many when he said, “Wow, sir! That was miles better than the film!” – high praise indeed, and clear evidence that this element of Abingdon’s arts partnership gets a universal thumbs up. Our thanks go to Nick Lloyd-White and the Amey Theatre team for making these screenings possible.
