SHEFFIELD, England — In 2001, Yann Martel’s internationally best-selling novel “Life of Pi” asked the question: What would happen if a teenage boy and a 450-pound tiger were stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days? Now, a new theatrical production is trying to answer another question: How on earth would you put such a story onstage?

With a 44-pound tiger puppet, that’s how.

Manipulated by three puppeteers, the tiger in “Life of Pi,” playing at the Crucible Theater in the northern English city of Sheffield through July 20, is fast and flexible enough to prowl and pounce across the stage. The eye quickly tunes the handlers out, and every flick of the tail feels full of life.

The production opened this month to shining reviews: The critic of The Daily Telegraph called it “a worthy successor to ‘War Horse,’” the Tony Award-winning play that also used animal puppets to striking effect.

“Life of Pi” begins in a zoo in Pondicherry, India, in 1976; i n the face of political upheaval, the family of the 17-year-old Pi decide to relocate to Canada, taking with them their animals — including giraffes, orangutans and zebras — all created in the play through puppetry. When the family’s ship sinks, only Pi survives, on a lifeboat he must share with the tiger.