Last Rites The Festival Theatre Studio Edinburgh 3rd February 2024 Review
Ad Infinitum Last Rites Photo Credit Credit Camilla Greenwell
Last Rites by Ad Infinitum theatre group has two performances at The Festival Theatre Studio Edinburgh this year (Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th February) as part of this year’s Manipulate Festival Season.
Ad Infinitum is a Bristol based theatre company, and to quote from their own their own mission statement “As a diverse-led arts organisation, we embrace difference through collaboration, enabling a more representative theatre culture to exist by placing those minoritised by society at the heart of our work. This has been the company’s ethos since its founding in 2007 and “Last Rites” is a new work from this already multi-award winning theatre group.
Co-created by George Mann and Ramesh Meyyappan (also deviser and performer), Last Rites is a sensitive insight into two cultures that, after experiencing this work, I have to become a lot more aware of – the Hindu Religion and that of the 'deaf, Deaf and hard of hearing' community.
“Last Rites” is a non-spoken word solo stage performance by Ramesh Meyyappan that with tight direction by George Mann, creative sound design and music (Akintayo Akinbode),video and projection (Chris Harrisson), lighting (Ali Hunter), costume and set design (Katie Sykes) effortlessly proves that spoken dialogue is not necessary to tell a story. This is nothing new, classical and contemporary dance have been doing this for a very long time already. What is required is a performer with the skills of Ramesh Meyyappan to not only tell his story (in sign language and minimal words on screen) but become both his father and young son whenever the narrative requires it. Ramesh has the skills to make us all in the audience believe that he is not the only person on stage tonight.
Whoever we are, whatever our cultural backgrounds, many things in life, many emotions, are universal to us all, we can all recognise a little bit of our own self in someone else. Here in “Last Rites”we explore perhaps one of the most powerful emotional times that any of us will experience in our lifetimes, the loss of a parent, and this cultural journey that we are taken on where a son has only 24 hours to prepare, according to custom, his father’s body for funeral explores many elements of their complex and at times very strained relationship together. Is this son prepared for not only dealing with the death of his father but the many memories and mixed emotions that this death now forces him to confront?
There are many ways to look at this work, many questions raised (often without any answers possible). The final “Last Rites” of many cultures across the world and throughout history have as part of their common culture the final ritual cleansing of the dead. Here in the west where so many people are no longer involved in this final goodbye due to so many people dying in hospitals, I could not help wonder if we have lost something very important in our contemporary culture.
Last Rites is a powerful performance by Ramesh Meyyappan that often has far more to say than the spoken word can ever do.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Ad Infinitum is a Bristol based theatre company, and to quote from their own their own mission statement “As a diverse-led arts organisation, we embrace difference through collaboration, enabling a more representative theatre culture to exist by placing those minoritised by society at the heart of our work. This has been the company’s ethos since its founding in 2007 and “Last Rites” is a new work from this already multi-award winning theatre group.
Co-created by George Mann and Ramesh Meyyappan (also deviser and performer), Last Rites is a sensitive insight into two cultures that, after experiencing this work, I have to become a lot more aware of – the Hindu Religion and that of the 'deaf, Deaf and hard of hearing' community.
“Last Rites” is a non-spoken word solo stage performance by Ramesh Meyyappan that with tight direction by George Mann, creative sound design and music (Akintayo Akinbode),video and projection (Chris Harrisson), lighting (Ali Hunter), costume and set design (Katie Sykes) effortlessly proves that spoken dialogue is not necessary to tell a story. This is nothing new, classical and contemporary dance have been doing this for a very long time already. What is required is a performer with the skills of Ramesh Meyyappan to not only tell his story (in sign language and minimal words on screen) but become both his father and young son whenever the narrative requires it. Ramesh has the skills to make us all in the audience believe that he is not the only person on stage tonight.
Whoever we are, whatever our cultural backgrounds, many things in life, many emotions, are universal to us all, we can all recognise a little bit of our own self in someone else. Here in “Last Rites”we explore perhaps one of the most powerful emotional times that any of us will experience in our lifetimes, the loss of a parent, and this cultural journey that we are taken on where a son has only 24 hours to prepare, according to custom, his father’s body for funeral explores many elements of their complex and at times very strained relationship together. Is this son prepared for not only dealing with the death of his father but the many memories and mixed emotions that this death now forces him to confront?
There are many ways to look at this work, many questions raised (often without any answers possible). The final “Last Rites” of many cultures across the world and throughout history have as part of their common culture the final ritual cleansing of the dead. Here in the west where so many people are no longer involved in this final goodbye due to so many people dying in hospitals, I could not help wonder if we have lost something very important in our contemporary culture.
Last Rites is a powerful performance by Ramesh Meyyappan that often has far more to say than the spoken word can ever do.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com