15 – 19 July

Nancy Medina was appointed Artistic Director of the Bristol Old Vic in 2022, and since then she has firmly established diversity and inclusivity as key elements of her vision of what theatre should be. That approach is exemplified in Last Rites, a one-man show presented by Ad Infinitum, the Bristol-based theatre company whose stated aim is to make ‘accessible, inclusive and captivating theatre.’ Last night’s audience included many who are Deaf, deaf or hard of hearing, and sharing this show with them was certainly an inclusive and captivating experience.

Co-created by director George Mann and deviser and performer Ramesh Meyyappan, Last Rites is the moving story of an Indian-born man now settled in the UK, who returns to India when he learns that his father is dying. Their relationship has long been fractured and he has not seen his father for ten years, but now, with his father’s death, he is expected by Hindu custom to perform the traditional funeral rites, including the washing of his body.

Meyyappan’s character is Deaf, as is the actor himself, and in Last Rites he uses highly expressive movement and facial expression to tell his story. There is no speech, though sparely employed creative captions are used together with Christopher Harrisson’s clever video design to underpin significant moments in the narrative. No words, but there is highly effective use of resonant sound, felt as well as heard, from designer and composer Akintayo Akinbode. The only props on an otherwise bare stage are a bowl of water and the father’s glasses. That pair of spectacles becomes a symbol of the father himself, a stubborn man who both literally and metaphorically did not always see too clearly.

Meyyappan is a wonderfully skilled, dynamic performer who has communicated visually through sign language all his life. But he says as a theatre performer he has had to find ‘a more shared visual language… a specific theatrical vocabulary for each piece of work.’  In Last Rites he has succeeded admirably, vividly conveying the shifts in the father-son relationship as his character recalls the key factors that drove them apart. These include his rejection of Hinduism – ‘too many gods’ –  his refusal to agree to an arranged marriage and, most devastatingly, his father’s failure to learn sign language, thus preventing them from ever having an ordinary, spontaneous conversation.

But while Last Rites is concerned with themes of loss, anger and regret, it is often shot through with humour. Meyyappan leavens the sadness with moments of mischievous comedy, as when depicting the smothering hug of a favourite auntie, or the intrusive chatter of relations outside the door when he is trying to come to terms with the task of washing his father.

The play concludes on a profoundly poignant note of literal reflection as the son stares into the bowl of water and sees his father’s face meld with his own. It is a reconciliation of sorts of a fraught but loving relationship that was never quite what it should have been, with so much left ‘unsaid’. That is surely an experience that many of us have shared.

★★★★☆  Mike Whitton, 17 July 2025

Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic