Interview: Ramesh Meyyappan
Visual Storyteller

Munira Mirza

Ramesh Meyyappan brought a unique one-man show to the Edinburgh Fringe this year (2003)- A Visual Adaptation of Dario Fo's 'Mistero Buffo'. This mimed piece is a funny, warm and intelligent example of the potential of visual storytelling .

Mistero Buffo was written and originally performed by Dario Fo, who derived his story from the 'Mystery Plays' of the Middle Ages. These religious tales were performed to an audience of common people and contained instructive lessons on the good life, highlighting the dangers of vice and sin. The mysteries were intended to appeal to 'everyman', speaking to the universal needs, desires and anxieties that face all human beings.

Ramesh's silent but highly expressive performance acts out the dilemmas of man in a way that is recognisable to all audiences. On first reading Fo's text, he was struck by how visual the writing was, and saw the potential for a visual adaptation.

Ramesh explains that his own brand of mime is partly shaped in the mode of the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, a popular form of improvised genre in the 16th and 17th centuries, that used stock characters to embody particular aspects of human behaviour and drives. But Ramesh also goes beyond conventional forms and explores instinctively how things can be represented in visual form. The ability to view things in a visual way is to him 'second nature', derived very much from the fact that he is deaf. From an early age, he began to explore language, and his potential for expression, in an entirely physical way. The limitations on his enjoyment and experience of verbal theatre shaped his creative energy towards developing mime.

Ramesh's first work on stage was with the Hi! Theatre - Singapore's only deaf theatre. He also worked as a teacher in schools, teaching physical theatre and running workshops for both hearing and deaf children. On becoming artistic director of Hi! Theatre, he made a deliberate decision to produce more challenging, high art works. Up till then he felt that the theatre's body of work did not raise expectations of the audience or challenge them with serious art. Most of the company's plays were short skits or entertaining pieces that fitted convention. The result was that the Hi! Theatre depended on a very narrow audience of deaf people, and had little appeal for the wider public. Ramesh's insight led him to direct Macbeth, bringing in new physical actors and winning critical acclaim from both the deaf theatre world and the mainstream.

The result of this success was an emerging tension within the company between Ramesh's clear artistic vision and the framework with which the other performers had previously been comfortable. Feeling unsatisfied with the artistic climate in Singapore and wishing to develop his knowledge of theatre more broadly, Ramesh eventually decided to come to England and study at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA).

On his arrival at LIPA, he was quickly directed towards the 'disabled arts' courses, but he insisted on enrolling on a mainstream course like everyone else. Ramesh was aware that 'disabled arts' education offered low expectations to disabled students and he knew that his talent was at least comparable to that of his hearing fellow students. LIPA eventually capitulated and he began his course.

This was not without conditions: he was told that he would need to hire an interpreter (it was felt that the teachers would be unable to communicate with him without one). It soon became clear, however, that someone so skilled in physical theatre and expression could communicate well enough with the people on his course without an interpreter. His colleagues either signed for him or he could relate his thoughts to them using his own resourcefulness. Ramesh completed his degree in July, top of his year, without an interpreter almost throughout.

The label of 'disabled arts' is a continuing problem for Ramesh. His audience in both the UK and Singapore remains limited, and he is aware that critics are reluctant to engage with his work. He sympathises with their lack of interest, because he admits that the majority of 'deaf theatre' is uninteresting and he suffers from being associated with it. Deaf audiences are not traditionally exposed to a strong theatre education, and there is little attempt to address this. Sign language is not the answer because it distracts from the visual happenings on the stage. Instead, he thinks the form of theatre itself can be developed in an innovative way.

In appealing to both deaf and mainstream audiences, Ramesh wishes to situate his work within a broader milieu but the current climate militates against this. It becomes a vicious circle, as hearing audiences stay away because he does 'deaf art'; he relies increasingly on funding and attracting financial support on the basis of being deaf. In an ideal world, he says, he would like to be appreciated as a good artist, not a deaf artist. Such a situation would enable him to build an audience and following on the basis of whether people actually enjoy the work, rather than as a result of government policy-making.

Ramesh is not interested in developing a 'deaf aesthetic' for an existing market: he inspires instead to a universal aesthetic. Even sign language, he notes, is often country specific. The vocabulary of physical theatre, however, could be completely comprehensible to all people. It is this faith in the potential of human expression to transcend boundaries that pushes him, not only artistically but also practically. He is unafraid to work with a hearing cast, because he is confident he can find a way to communicate without sign language. Similarly, he sees no need to use sign on the stage itself. Ramesh has a resourceful approach to communicating, reflecting his feeling that we underestimate how easily we do relate to each other without constant assistance.

Ramesh has come to the end of his world tour and looks forward to working on a new piece, this time based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. If he continues to develop his innovative style and commitment to the unique aesthetic of physical theatre, he will without doubt transcend the label of 'disabled artist', and begin to attract the wider audience he deserves.

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