Last Rites – Festival Theatre Studio

This is a story about a man who travels back to his family home in India to conduct a funeral ritual for his late, estranged father, who was a devout Hindu. As he conducts the ritual, he relives experiences from their difficult relationship.

This solo piece, performed by Ranesh Meyyapan uses movement, BSL, subtitles and projected images. There is no spoken language. Sometimes the words onscreen are replaced with emoji-like images – for example, the father is represented by a pair of glasses. This nicely reflects the visual nature of gesture-based language.

The sound design, by Tayo Akinbode, was a triumph. Music alternates with sound effects. The ambiguous sound of burning flames, or running water, as Meyyapan conducts the ritual, was particularly evocative and brought home the finality of this loss.

I could see that the son still loved his father, even though the father didn’t deserve it. His anger and love both inform his grief. The son rejected the father’s religion, but the father rejected the son, refusing to learn sign language in order to communicate with his deaf child. “His hands would pray, but not sign. It’s like you didn’t want to know me.” My heart broke a little bit watching this piece of theatre.

Meyyapan is a theatre maker who has created his own distinctive visual style of theatre. He is also involved in raising awareness of the deaf community in Scottish theatre. I am thrilled by the complexity of storytelling that can be achieved without spoken language. This is a deeply moving piece about parenting, grief, love, and wasted opportunity.

Reviewer: Wendy McEwan

Reviewed: 4th February 2024

North West End UK Rating: