The curious incident of the tiger in the lifeboat

Not knowing Yann Martel's Man Booker-winning novel, I went along to the Wales Millennium Centre last week to see the latest stage adaptation of Life Of Pi with few expectations - and left astonished by what I'd witnessed.

Martel's tale revolves around themes of perseverance and belief - but also the value and indeed necessity of creating fictions. The story is evidently a fantastical concoction, and it was incredible to see it brought to life and made believable.

The staging was exceptional - from the clever use of scenery (one minute conjuring a bustling Indian market and the next a huge ship at sea) to the innovative props (such as lights attached to the skeletons of umbrellas to convey the stars). Most impressive in this regard were the lighting/video projections onto the walls and stage, helping to transform the setting. Indeed, the storm that leaves the eponymous hero adrift in a lifeboat with a tiger was so effectively conjured that I started to feel seasick.

And then there were the puppets, created by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell: a shoal of fish, a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan - and of course the aforementioned tiger, mistakenly given the name of its captor Richard Parker. The puppeteers' skill at conveying the animal's stealthy, lithe gait was staggering. Little wonder that they shared an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Focusing on the staging and the puppetry does a bit of a disservice to lead actor Divesh Subaskaran, who deserved enormous credit for the energy of his performance. I can't have been alone in fearing that he might stumble off the edge of the lifeboat as it rotated on stage, but somehow he managed to nimbly skip around, evading Richard Parker's attentions and delivering his lines without once coming close to twisting his ankle.

The other cast members weren't quite so impressive, with some lines garbled and lost amid the hubbub, and it's also probably fair to say that the bulk of the action took place before the interval, so the second half - mostly focused on the uneasy relationship between man and beast - was less dramatic. But as a visual spectacle and a feat of dazzling staging, Life Of Pi was a triumph.