最后的仪式 Last Rites
Ad无限剧团 Theatre Ad Infinitum
故事从一位聋人的视角展开，讲述了一段复杂的亲子关系在猝不及防的离别中戛然而止。阿琼（Arjun）从英国返回印度，为父亲完成葬礼仪式。但这个古老的印度教传统从未被传授给他，他该如何完成？生前，父亲拒绝学习手语；死后，阿琼却必须找到自己的方式告别。他创造了一场独属于自己的最后仪式，在回忆的交织中，重现父子之间的点滴过往。
Told through a Deaf man’s unique perspective, this show tells the passionate and poignant story of a complex relationship cut short. Travelling from the UK to India, Arjun needs to carry out his father’s funeral rites. But how can he perform an ancient Hindu practice that was never passed on? In life, his father wouldn’t learn sign language, but in death Arjun needs to find a way to say goodbye. He creates his own intimate, final ceremony that brings to life a rich tapestry of shared memories.
《最后的仪式》是一部融合了精彩的肢体戏剧、震撼的影像投影以及沉浸式音效的非语言叙事作品，让观众在“听”与“感受”之间体验独特的剧场魅力。这部感人至深的作品由国际知名戏剧人拉美诗·亚潘与乔治·曼首次合作，共同打造。两位艺术家携手英国屡获殊荣的Ad无限剧团，用戏剧探讨悲伤与亲情的转化力量。《最后的仪式》是一部无台词的作品，对所有观众开放——无论是聋人、听障人士还是健听观众都能感受其中的情感。演出融合英国手语（BSL）、创意字幕，以及低频震撼的音乐，让观众可以通过“听”或“触”来沉浸其中，体验一场不同寻常的告别旅程。
Last Rites combines exciting physical, non-verbal storytelling with dynamic projection and an immersive soundtrack that can be felt and heard. Internationally acclaimed theatre makers Ramesh Meyyappan and George Mann collaborate for the first time in multi-award-winning theatre company Ad Infinitum’s moving new performance celebrating the transformative power of grief and parenthood.
Last Rites is a non-verbal piece of theatre with no spoken words that is accessible to deaf, Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing audiences. The performance includes some BSL with creative captions and a soundtrack with heavy use of bass so that it can be felt or heard by audience members.
演员拉美诗·亚潘通过自己无限的创造力，在舞台上为观众展现了精彩纷呈的表演。拉美诗多次和Ad无限剧团合作，共同创作默剧。他在表演中加入手语，这也为更多观众打开了剧场的大门。拉美诗的独角戏表演即便没有台词也很精彩。他在演出的部分片段中使用英国手语（BSL）和美国手语（ASL）进行演出，与巨幅投影的创意字幕同步，让观众可以轻松理解含义。他的肢体表现极具感染力，有时沉重，有时俏皮，始终专注且细腻，他的每一个关节、每一根手指仿佛都在讲述经历过的故事。
导演乔治·曼不仅充分利用了舞台的不同区域和多层次的空间效果，还通过巧妙的视觉设计创造出多样的氛围与场景，让这部没有台词的作品拥有了更丰富的叙事。尤其是巨大的创意字幕，使用不同字体区分每个角色，通过颜色表达情感或暴力，并通过动态重组的文字展现故事，既清晰又富有创意。
Ramesh Meyyappan brings vibrant performances to the stage through his boundless creativity. He has collaborated multiple times with Ad Infinitum Theatre to create mime productions, incorporating sign language into his performances and thus opening the doors of theatre to a wider audience. Even without spoken lines, his solo performances are captivating. In certain segments, he uses British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL), synchronized with large-scale projected creative captions, allowing the audience to easily understand the meaning. His physical expression is deeply compelling—at times heavy, at times playful, always focused and nuanced. Every joint, every finger seems to be telling a story of its own.
Director George Mann not only makes full use of different areas of the stage and multi-layered spatial effects but also employs ingenious visual design to create diverse atmospheres and settings, enriching the storytelling of this wordless production. Particularly striking are the large-scale creative captions, which distinguish characters through different fonts, convey emotions or violence through color, and dynamically restructure text to unfold the story in a way that is both clear and inventive.
Photography by Jack Offord and Camilla Greenwell
Ad无限剧团（Theatre Ad Infinitum）成立于英国布里斯托，由尼尔·帕尔迪（Nir Paldi）和乔治·曼（George Mann）担任联合艺术总监，并由不同文化背景的成员组成，致力于为多元文化的观众创造新颖的原创戏剧作品。2007年剧团创立至今，创作了多部备受好评的获奖作品，其中包括2015年《菲克斯杂志》最佳舞台奖的《光》、和2011年爱丁堡艺穗节中场场爆满一票难求并获得《艺穗剧评》杰出戏剧奖的《天堂轨迹》。
他们不仅是屡获殊荣的戏剧团队，还是大胆，极富创意的舞台先锋，倾力于通过创意的叙事和大胆的实验风格，探讨社会和政治主题。
编、导、演三项全能的乔治·曼毕业于伦敦大学皇家霍洛威学院。曾在法国巴黎著名的贾克乐寇肢体剧团受训。2008年带领着Ad无限剧团携手作品《镜子》在爱丁堡艺穗节收获一众专业剧评家的好评。随后他参与演出改编的《奥赛罗》在世界各地巡演，再度创下场场爆满一票难求的奇迹。
Theatre Ad Infinitum, founded in Bristol, UK, is led by Co-Artistic Directors Nir Paldi and George Mann. Comprising members from diverse cultural backgrounds, the company is dedicated to creating innovative and original theatre for multicultural audiences. Since its inception in 2007, Theatre Ad Infinitum has produced numerous critically acclaimed and award-winning works, including Light, which received the 2015 Stage Award, and Translunar Paradise, which enjoyed sold-out performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2011 and won the Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award.
Not only is the company a multi-award-winning theatre ensemble, but it is also a bold and highly creative pioneer in the performing arts, committed to exploring social and political themes through inventive storytelling and daring experimental styles.
George Mann, a versatile playwright, director, and actor, graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London, and trained at the renowned Jacques Lecoq School of Physical Theatre in Paris. In 2008, he led Theatre Ad Infinitum to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the production Behind the Mirror. Subsequently, he participated in the adaptation of Othello, which toured globally and consistently played to sold-out audiences.
乔治·曼是 Ad无限剧团的联合艺术总监，同时也是一位戏剧导演，剧团总部位于布里斯托。乔治·曼于 2007 年创立了 Ad无限剧团，此前他曾在巴黎的 Jacques Lecoq 国际戏剧学院接受训练。在过去的15年中，他为该剧团创作、导演、编写并参与演出。乔治于2014年12月获得国家剧院和布里斯托老维克剧院的 Quercus Trust 奖，随后于2015-2017年担任布里斯托老维克剧院的副导演。
他的主要作品包括：
《Odyssey》，荣获“舞台最佳独角戏表演奖”，并进行了为期十年的国际巡演；《Translunar Paradise》，赢得九项大奖，巡演全球，包括巴西的三个月巡演；《Light》，在伦敦演出四次，包括2015年伦敦国际默剧节期间在巴比肯中心的售罄演出，并进行了为期四年的国际巡演；《Beautiful Evil Things》，被《卫报》评为“2022年最佳戏剧”第四名，目前仍在进行国际巡演。
George Mann is co-artistic director of Ad Infinitum and a freelance theatre director based in Bristol. George founded Ad Infinitum in 2007 after training at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris (2004-06). Over the last 15 years, he has devised, directed, written and performed for the company. George won the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic’s Quercus Trust Award in December 2014 and was Associate Director at Bristol Old Vic 2015-17.
Credits include: Odyssey, winner of ‘The Stage Best Solo Performer Award’ which toured internationally for 10 years; Translunar Paradise, winner of nine awards, and toured the world including a 3-month tour of Brazil; Light, 4 London runs including a sell-out at Barbican as part of the 2015 London International Mime Festival, and toured internationally for four years; the critically acclaimed Extraordinary Wall [of Silence], which toured the UK and was made into a feature film for international screening during the pandemic; Beautiful Evil Things, number 4 in The Guardian’s ‘Best Theatre of 2022’ which continues to tour nationally and internationally.
拉美诗·亚潘是一位剧场创作者，他的作品融合了多种视觉与肢体剧场风格。他不断致力于发展和拓展自己的视觉戏剧语言，例如在作品中融入马戏技巧、小丑戏、木偶戏以及幻术等元素。他尤其热衷于挑战，通过视觉叙事创作出强有力的戏剧作品。
拉美诗堪称一位先驱，他持续探索各种视觉风格，致力于创作完全无障碍的作品，同时提升人们对聋人表演者和导演的认知。自2006年移居苏格兰以来，他在提升苏格兰剧场界对聋人群体的关注方面发挥了重要作用。他曾参与设计苏格兰皇家音乐学院（Royal Conservatoire of Scotland）的英国手语（BSL）与英语表演学士学位课程，并持续教授其中的视觉戏剧模块。
Ramesh Meyyappan is a theatre maker who develops performances using an eclectic mix of visual and physical theatre styles. He continually seeks to develop and extend his theatrical visual vocabulary, incorporating circus techniques, bouffon, puppetry, and illusion into his work. He enjoys the challenge of creating strong narrative visual work.
Ramesh is something of a pioneer, he has continually explored visual styles that allow him to make work entirely accessible while raising awareness of deaf performers and directors, since he moved to Scotland in 2006, he played an important role in raising awareness of deaf to the Scottish theatre community. He was involved in the programme design team for the BA Performance in BSL (British Sign Language) and English at the Royal Conservatoire Scotland where he continues to teach the Visual Theatre module.
形动 - 英国肢体剧场展演由英格兰文化委员会支持与赞助
In Motion - British Physical Theatre Showcase is supported by Arts Council England
由剧艺无限制作
Produced by Performance Infinity
Email: info@performanceinfinity.org
