This September the Lemon Tree theatre in Aberdeen will host the touching and acclaimed production Love Beyond. Some Press and Journal online content is funded by outside parties. The revenue from this helps to sustain our independent news gathering.
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Tackling a subject that will have affected many, it tells the tale of a man with dementia who uses sign language to communicate. It’s a beautiful, tender and visually stunning show that plays powerfully with the confusions forced on someone with dementia. Fresh from winning the Leading Light Award (for Best Scottish Production) at The Scottish Theatre Awards on the Fringe, Love Beyond will play for two nights at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen in September.
The one-hour show was described by The Scotsman as combining “tremendous depths of emotion with sheer technical brilliance”. It is sure to have a deeply personal impact on its audience. The story of Love Beyond Harry has dementia.
He also uses sign language. As he moves into a new home, he is accompanied by memories that dance like ghosts around him. Events from the past seem newly present; a visit from his wife rekindles their love – he imagines they are young and together again.
Harry’s carer provides him with some solace, but just as the determined nurse begins to learn Harry’s sign language, he begins to forget it, leaving him in a unique world where he must confront the only thing that remains – himself. This show incorporates BSL, visual language (sign mime/visual vernacular) and oral dialogue. It intends to present an equal experience for d/Deaf audiences and hearing audiences.
Exceptional talent that brings show to life Love Beyond is presented by Raw Material and Vanishing Point in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts. It is written by and stars Glasgow-based Singaporean Ramesh Meyyappan. Ramesh is d/Deaf and truly inhabits his role.
In a moving performance, he subtly conveys deep emotion and perfectly encapsulates the frustration of dealing with dementia while also struggling to communicate with those around you. He is brilliantly supported by Elicia Daly as Harry’s nurse and Amy Kennedy as his late wife, who appears in unsettling fragments within the show. Director Matthew Lenton stages the action perfectly, drawing the audience in and making excellent use of Becky Minto’s innovative stage design.
Universal acclaim for Love Beyond Critics have heaped praise on Love Beyond since its debut at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in February 2023. The Scotsman hailed “Becky Minto’s astonishing set of mirrored screens which sometimes shiver with loss and uncertainty”, as well as the “superb lighting by Simon Wilkinson, and a searching and beautiful score by David Paul Jones, which leads us straight into the surges of thought and emotion in Harry’s mind, that cannot be expressed in words”. Meanwhile, a review in the Edinburgh Guide described it as “passionate, powerful and poignant”, while the All Edinburgh Theatre hailed it staging as “a piece of creative genius”.
In a four-star review, The Guardian said the show, which is part of the Made in Scotland showcase, was “an astonishing play” and “deeply moving”..
