Love Beyond (An Act of Remembrance) review

What makes it particularly powerful is the skilful staging from Vanishing Point’s artistic director Matthew Lenton and designer Becky Minto. Three great mirrors surround the stage. Sometimes they are opaque, casting Harry and his care home back on to the audience. Sometimes they are translucent, allowing figures and fantasies behind them to bleed through. As a theatrical device, it is really neat. As a reflection of Harry’s muddled mind, it is a master stroke. Harry and Elise flirting on a dinner date; Harry and Elise in bed, laughing and playing; Harry and Elise at the beach, her swimming smoothly in mid-air, him toiling after her. Harry and Elise scattering a painfully small urn of ashes together. All these scenes and more flicker and fade to David Paul Jones’ ethereal, insistent score.

Everything is anchored by strong performances. Meyyappan uncomfortably captures the angst and anger of a man losing his mind, subtly slipping from upright to doddery. Elicia Daly is excellent, too, as Harry’s clumsy but compassionate carer May, who grows more proficient with British Sign Language over time. Rinkoo Barpaga and Amy Kennedy flit between them, the ghosts of Harry and Elise’s younger selves.

It is elegantly accessible to D/deaf audiences. No subtitles or surtitles are required; BSL is woven into the story throughout, and the language barrier between those who understand it and those who don’t is central to the story. It is just another terrific touch in a thoroughly thoughtful piece of theatre, a gentle gem of a show.