There’s a philosophical thread to what unfolds. The fable asks big questions about how we can prove our version of events, the value of storytelling and our capacity to believe extraordinary things because we sense the world is strange beyond measure.

This is, though, a consummate family show (“parental guidance”, they’re saying; I’d suggest 10 and up). The Wyndham’s has been given a makeover: the stage built up and out, with the seating in the stalls raised correspondingly. I can’t vouch for the experience at that level but what I can confirm having been treated to good seats in the royal circle is that from on high it’s still astounding.

Directed by Max Webster, the action shifts, in a sublimely fluid fashion, between Pi’s hospital and his odyssey of peril which shades into surreal, inter-species friendship. There is also superb state of the art projection; video designer Andrzej Goulding achieves a cinematic feast of oceanic tumult, as well as suggesting starry night skies. At one point Abeysekera’s lithe, likeable Pi jumps overboard, to be swallowed by the briny; it rightly draws gasps from the audience.

The puppeteers achieve animal magic. Whether it’s a giraffe, orangutan, hyena or (fatally mauled) goat in the Pondicherry zoo scenes, or shoals of leaping, luminous fish and a turtle once the action shifts to the Pacific, each creature is lovingly brought to ‘animated’ life. The star of the show, of course, needing three tireless handlers, is Richard Parker. Exuding a watchful malevolence and innate magnificence, he moves from brute prowling threat to personality in his own right. He’s the tiger who went to sea you’ll want to go see. Keeping your distance, naturally.

Tickets: 0844 482 5151; lifeofpionstage.com