Butterfly's pure visual poetry

THERE is power and purity in the way deaf artist Ramesh Meyyappan creates his plays. Using no words and few props, Meyyappan and his actors rely on literal, mimetic and symbolic gestures to conjure complex, layered stories. At times, his masterful storytelling is more effective than an ordinary play with words.

However, just as one may be awestruck by the guilelessness of his storytelling, one may also be perplexed by the stories' naivete that feels anachronistic in this day and age.

In Butterfly, his latest play for the Esplanade Studios series, Meyyappan has created the tale of a beautiful and innocent woman whose life is torn asunder when two men fall for her. Set sometime in the 1920s in Scotland, the tale largely takes place in a shop where the gentle and unassuming Butterfly (Ashley Smith) makes and…