Last Rites

Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic at Manipulate Arts

Review by Russell Cook from Suffolk Village Info.

This is undoubtedly boundary-breaking, touching the limits of loss, love and parenthood.

Wonderfully performed in a mesmerising and dramatic way by Ramesh Meyyappan, who explores the deaf and dumb world of Arjun, as he travels back to India to pay his last respects to his father.

With just a minimalistic stage setting of a mat, a raised piece of staging, a bowl of water and a tiny receptacle containing powder, Last Rites is a skilful triumph of mime and drama.

With no words, save for the mumblings of Arjun - along with creative caption speech bubbles and images capturing his life displayed on a background screen - the 65 minute performance tugs at the heart strings.

So how do you say your goodbyes to a loved one when words were never there?

To Arjun’s despair, his father never learned how to sign which created a void and a lack of empathy between the pair.

But now he has gone, Arjun must find his own way to honour him.

In a world where ancient traditions meet modern reality, Arjun embarks on a deeply personal and visually mesmerising quest to create a farewell ritual for his father – one woven from memory, love and loss.

He travels from the UK to India to pay his own personal final thoughts to his father, recounting their journey through life and Arjun’s desire to leave his homeland and to travel westwards.

The performance and the immersive soundscape are rich with emotion, beauty and innovation, and all brought together with wonderful timing, actions and dramatic effect.

You see Arjun in solitude, appearing to bathe his father’s head, face, hands and feet in his final resting place prior to his cremation.

And you feel his anguish that the father and son relationship never really materialised into something more.

But blood is thicker than water and Arjun eventually links up with his own son and displays at his father’s death bed that the family lives on.

It’s a unique and imaginative performance … one that transcends language and is profoundly moving.

Last Rites is at New Wolsey Theatre until February 15.

FOR FULL SHOW DETAILS AND BOOKING LINK, CLICK HERE