To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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The signs of grief
SIMON PARSONS applauds an expressive and delicate drama that depicts a deaf son’s Hindu funeral ceremony for his father
STYLISH: Ramesh Meyyappan in Last Rites
[Mihaela Bodlovic]
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Last Rites
Corn Exchange, Newbury
AD Infinitum’s latest one-man show co-devised and performed by Ramesh Meyyappan is a stylish hour, seamlessly combining expressive and delicate physicality with imaginative captioning and graphics along with a fully integrated, low-key score.
Centred around the last rites performed by the deaf son for his traditional Hindu father, it is a journey through their increasingly troubled relationship where his father’s stubborn unwillingness to engage with his son’s sign language has alienated the growing child from an obviously loving parent.
Reluctantly facing the washing ceremony that is the traditional duty of the eldest son as part of a Hindu funeral, Meyyappan turns the necessarily repetitive routine of delicately cleansing and anointing his dead father into an intense, graceful and emotional slow dance. Without spoken words his sign language and physicality create a series of vivid pictures of his father and the relationship they shared that expresses his profound sense of loss for their broken relationship.
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