Created by Ramesh Meyyappan and George Mann

Directed by George Mann

Tickets from £16.00

There’s something inherently beautiful, if distant, in appreciating how other cultures perform someone’s final passing from this world to the next.

One of the most agonising times of our lives, the loss of a parent, is a moment often so cruel and indescribable that even the most fluent in emotive spoken language struggle to put its devastation into words. In moving away from verbalised words, Last Rites’ structure is precisely how Bristol-based theatre company Ad Infinitum succeeds in communicating feelings of guilt, grief, recrimination and frustration in their continued ethos of celebrating diverse works and representation.

Co-created by director George Mann and Ramesh Meyyappan, who devised and performs the piece, Last Rites’ initial focus is on a young Meyyappan going through the emotions and cycles of preparing for his father’s final wishes. What follows is an open-armed approach and insight into elements and practises of Hinduism, merged with Meyyappan’s discriminations and experiences within the ‘deaf, Deaf, and hard of hearing’ communities and his everyday life. 

A story spanning decades, covering shared elements of our lives (schools, arguments with parents), Last Rites has a distinctive difference from many in its lack of spoken word and emphasis on choreography and visual storytelling where much of the communication becomes non-verbal, sound-based, and in Meyyappan’s physicality and movement. Audiences who have previously seen Meyyappan’s award-winning Love Beyond will be familiar with the depth of range and skill Meyyappan conjures in fusing conversational manner with sharp movements with instilled meaning – transitioning from playing a younger self to their father, with fluid momentum that never loses the audience. Performed with such dexterity and passion, often it is as if there are two performers on the stage, breathing, sharing the same space.

In fostering a bridge in shared space, Last Rites utilises various methods of visual storytelling, soundscaping and emotional shortcuts to communicate to the entire audience. Akintayo Akinbode’s gorgeous sound design and composition are present throughout, only pausing to allow additional elements to shine or to place emphasis on the meditative states or painful rings of silence. While Ali Hunter’s lighting and Chris Harrisson’s video projection offer much of Last Rite’s visual nature – an enormous projection board behind Meyyappan, projecting in time with sound effects to visualise and give shape to slaps of the wrist, breaking glass, or whisps of wind – all with a strikingly effective impact.

Where Love Beyond spoke with a voice of passion and the gradually declining nature of all things except love, Last Rites channels a furious rage from various raw and wholly honest angles. It can make Last Rites a complicated, even difficult watch, with how authentic the relationship Meyyappan conjures with his deceased father – one where love and admiration sit as closely as disappointment and regret.

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