Combining striking visuals and physical storytelling with dynamic projection and a resonant soundtrack, Ad Infinitum’s new non-verbal solo show, Last Rites, explores a powerful journey of love, loss, and what it means to be a parent.
Co-devised by Deaf theatre maker Ramesh Meyyappan and Ad Infinitum Co-Artistic Director George Mann, Last Rites follows a man who has twenty-four hours to perform his father’s funeral rights. Created in response to Meyyappan and Mann’s memories of losing their fathers, and their own lived experiences of fatherhood, they explore how grief and ritual have a universal power.
Ramesh Meyyappan performs as intergenerational characters throughout the performance, supported by seamless projection, bass-heavy sound design and physical storytelling to create a piece accessible to d/Deaf and hearing audiences. This intimate, final ceremony brings to life a rich tapestry of shared memories and a complex relationship cut short by death.
Co-creators Ramesh Meyyappan and George Mann said: “Over 13 years ago we met at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after seeing each other’s performances, and knew we wanted to collaborate and work together one day. It’s taken a while! But in 2020 during the pandemic, we finally found time and space to begin thinking about what a collaboration might look like – what kind of new piece we could make, and found a lot of synergy in our practices, personal histories, and in what inspires us as artists. It’s brilliant to finally be working together integrating our different skill sets and lived experiences to create a new and exciting story and production.”
A Glasgow-based Singaporean, Ramesh Meyyappan is a theatre maker who develops performances using an eclectic mix of visual and physical theatre styles. Ramesh continually seeks to develop and extend his theatrical visual vocabulary, for example incorporating circus techniques, bouffon, puppetry and illusion within his work. He enjoys the challenge of creating strong narrative visual work. Over the years, his solo performances and collaborations have toured nationally and internationally (over 20 countries) to much critical acclaim. He has been nominated five times for Best Actor at the Life! Theatre Awards (Singapore) and awarded the accolade twice. Ramesh is an associate artist of Raw Material and represented by Brennan Artists as an actor.
Co-Artistic Director of Ad Infinitum, George Mann has devised, directed, written and performed for the company for over 16 years. Credits include: Odyssey, winner of ‘The Stage Best Solo Performer Award’; Translunar Paradise, winner of nine awards; Light, four London runs including a sell-out at the 2015 London International Mime Festival; Extraordinary Wall [of Silence], made into a feature film for international screening; and Beautiful Evil Things, one of The Guardian’s ‘Best Theatre of 2022’: all shows have toured nationally and internationally for years. George won the National Theatre’s Quercus Trust Award in December 2014 and was Associate Director at Bristol Old Vic 2015-17. His critically acclaimed main stage directorial work at Bristol Old Vic includes Pink Mist, written by Owen Sheers, which transferred to Bush Theatre London in 2016.
Ad Infinitum is a multi-award-winning, internationally acclaimed theatre company. We collaborate to tell stories, play and disrupt. We work with artists, activists and communities to create transformative theatre, revolutionise audiences and change the world. Founded in 2007, Ad Infinitum is based in Bristol and works internationally. Ad Infinitum is proud to be Associate Artist at Bristol Old Vic and The North Wall, and a member of the Cultural Governance Alliance (CGA).
After the performance of Last Rites at Shoreditch Town Hall on Friday 26th January, Ramesh Meyyappan will be joined in a post-show discussion by Deaf artist and theatre maker David Ellington, who is making a short film of the creation process behind Last Rites. The event will be in BSL and translated by BSL interpreters into spoken English.
More information can be found here
