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Channelnewsasia.com
Gin may be the drink of choice for the character he will play, but deaf performer Ramesh Meyyappan prefers a pint of Budweiser.
During Wednesday's rehearsals for the upcoming performance, Gin & Tonic & Passing Trains at the Esplanade, the UK-based Singaporean spoke through a sign-language interpreter — assisted by his own animated chugging gestures. "In England, you always drink, drink, drink. Everybody buys a pint — especially if there's a Liverpool game," said the professed Reds fan.
Meyyappan's new production — directed by Spike Theatre's Mark Smith — is a take on Charles Dickens' short story, The Signalman, about a railway signalman who is regularly visited by ghosts, with tragic results.
The 33-year-old actor mused that Dickens had been involved in a train crash, and later mixed fantasy with real experience.
He found it "very scary", and decided to balance the dark tone with comedy. In the play, Meyyappan performs all the characters. One of them, signalman Mr Jones, is driven by boredom to the drink, and eventually meets spirits of a different kind.
His silent performance will be complemented by the lighting designs of Justin Breman and soundscapes by musician Paul Skinner, which, according to the actor, play a big role in the show.
Since he moved to Liverpool in 2000, the former artistic director of the now-defunct local deaf drama company, Hi! Theatre, has been making waves abroad, including performances at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
He regularly comes back to Singapore to perform in shows like last year's The Art of War, and a dark rendition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell Tale Heart and The Masque of the Red Death at the Substation in 2004.
The latter was also performed at QuestFest 2006, a visual theatre festival held in Baltimore in the US. He has been invited to perform at the next one in 2008.
Physical and visual theatre in Singapore has a long way to go, and it is mostly considered as mere mime, an "irked" Meyyappan remarked, making strangling gestures.
There are very few opportunities for actors like him here, he said, and a lot of the works are not accessible to deaf people.
"It's all about speaking, speaking, speaking," he said. This is why he's based in the UK, where theatre festivals are abundant. But hopefully, Meyyappan added, he can eventually organise a festival of this sort here.
Preferring not to be pigeonholed, he does not only do mime, but regularly incorporates elements of puppetry and mask theatre into his performances.
Meyyappan's influences are varied, too: From the heroes of the silent-film era like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, to the works of the Italian playwright and actor Dario Fo, a Nobel Prize for Literature winner, to... Jackie Chan?
"I would like to do acrobatics as well," he said with a grin.
WHAT: GIN & TONIC & PASSING TRAINS
WHEN: JULY 20 & 21, 8PM (4PM ON JULY 21)
WHERE: ESPLANADE THEATRE STUDIO
TICKETS: SISTIC
Gin may be the drink of choice for the character he will play, but deaf performer Ramesh Meyyappan prefers a pint of Budweiser.
During Wednesday's rehearsals for the upcoming performance, Gin & Tonic & Passing Trains at the Esplanade, the UK-based Singaporean spoke through a sign-language interpreter — assisted by his own animated chugging gestures. "In England, you always drink, drink, drink. Everybody buys a pint — especially if there's a Liverpool game," said the professed Reds fan.
Meyyappan's new production — directed by Spike Theatre's Mark Smith — is a take on Charles Dickens' short story, The Signalman, about a railway signalman who is regularly visited by ghosts, with tragic results.
The 33-year-old actor mused that Dickens had been involved in a train crash, and later mixed fantasy with real experience.
He found it "very scary", and decided to balance the dark tone with comedy. In the play, Meyyappan performs all the characters. One of them, signalman Mr Jones, is driven by boredom to the drink, and eventually meets spirits of a different kind.
His silent performance will be complemented by the lighting designs of Justin Breman and soundscapes by musician Paul Skinner, which, according to the actor, play a big role in the show.
Since he moved to Liverpool in 2000, the former artistic director of the now-defunct local deaf drama company, Hi! Theatre, has been making waves abroad, including performances at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
He regularly comes back to Singapore to perform in shows like last year's The Art of War, and a dark rendition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell Tale Heart and The Masque of the Red Death at the Substation in 2004.
The latter was also performed at QuestFest 2006, a visual theatre festival held in Baltimore in the US. He has been invited to perform at the next one in 2008.
Physical and visual theatre in Singapore has a long way to go, and it is mostly considered as mere mime, an "irked" Meyyappan remarked, making strangling gestures.
There are very few opportunities for actors like him here, he said, and a lot of the works are not accessible to deaf people.
"It's all about speaking, speaking, speaking," he said. This is why he's based in the UK, where theatre festivals are abundant. But hopefully, Meyyappan added, he can eventually organise a festival of this sort here.
Preferring not to be pigeonholed, he does not only do mime, but regularly incorporates elements of puppetry and mask theatre into his performances.
Meyyappan's influences are varied, too: From the heroes of the silent-film era like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, to the works of the Italian playwright and actor Dario Fo, a Nobel Prize for Literature winner, to... Jackie Chan?
"I would like to do acrobatics as well," he said with a grin.
WHAT: GIN & TONIC & PASSING TRAINS
WHEN: JULY 20 & 21, 8PM (4PM ON JULY 21)
WHERE: ESPLANADE THEATRE STUDIO
TICKETS: SISTIC