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 final...