“Remarkably felicitous in his overall theatrical engaging practices, Taha Mandviwala as the titular character is nothing short of brilliant in the role. With a childlike naiveté when first encountering both Mr. Okamoto (Alan Ariano) the Nurse (Jessica Angleskhan) and Lulu Chen (Mi Kang) in the infirmary, Mandviwala hooks the audience straight away, preparing them to embark on his extraordinarily unbelievable journey. Mandviwala is physically captivating, whether he’s springing spryly about on the boat, or drifting (in carry-lifts by fellow performers on stage) through the ocean. Even when he’s physically still, which isn’t very often in this production, there’s a bombastic and frenetic pulsation of energy vibrating ferociously inside of him, yearning to burst out into his limbs and move him. Mandviwala delivers emotionally harrowing and brutally gutting moments of storytelling that deliver blow after blow of emotional unrest. He is Pi so much so that the tears, the gasps, the laughs, the pauses of contemplation arrive naturally from the audience as they hang on his every word, movement, and expression. Even when he tells the tale, as Mr. Okamoto puts it— “a different story, one without animals”— there is something so strikingly beautiful about this darkly, horrific tale, that you’re entranced beyond compare. Mandviwala is nothing short of amazing as Pi and delivers each moment on stage as if it were a captivating solo narrative all its own.” - Amanda N. Gunther, Theatre Bloom