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The LGBTQ+ community hardly has representation in mainstream art and performance platforms. When it does, like in Dostana, it’s highly problematic and offensive. Gay men are often stereotyped as effeminate and flamboyant, lesbian women are hypersexualised, and trans individuals are largely absent or portrayed as unnatural, playing to superstitions and paranoia. Thanks to this kind of discrimination, members of the LGBTQ+ community have a tough time finding safe spaces of expression where they can be themselves, without fear of persecution, bullying or something more violent and physical.
Gaysi Family, blog featuring queer-centric narratives on South Asia, on its 10 year anniversary, has carved out such a space in performance art with its production, Pinky Promise. In collaboration with Tinder India and The Consulate General of Canada in Mumbai, Gaysi Family and The Patchworks Ensemble, a theatre company, are working to bring an assortment of six stories celebrating queer love, longing, and desire in the form of short story theatre. “We believe that there is a need to build an alternate aesthetics of resistance... And theatre is a form which enables an articulation of this language of resistance. Each act would tickle a bone and would hopefully make people think and be active in the societal change,” says Priya Gangwani, co-founder of Gaysi Family.
Sheena Khalid, the director for Pinky Promise, has curated her own breadth of experience in the art and performance space. “I absolutely love, love, love direction. I love working with the Gaysi gang and loved working on these scripts,” she says excitedly. A theatre director and founding member of Patchworks Ensemble, Sheena has not only directed and produced, but also acted in productions like Ila, The Gentlemen’s Club AKA Tape, and Where I Stand. Referring to the five short acts in Pinky Promise, she says, “I haven’t worked with shorts, so this was nice. Also, we were working with writers who weren’t in the rehearsal room, so that was interesting as well,” she says about the process.
All five stories touch on topics important to the LGBTQ+ community in nuanced ways that transcend superficiality: Travelling While Trans is about a trans woman negotiating airport security, So Far unfolds as a relationship between two women who used to be in a relationship and meet many years later, PG (Paying Guest) is a sci-fi themed exploration of a young girl looking for a room in a shared apartment, Love’s Neighbourhood shows the ups and down of two lovers, and 2 x 2 is about men meeting on a train.
Rohini Ramanathan, a professional radio DJ with Radio Nasha, recipient of the “Queeroe” award, and an actor in the production, says “These stories exist in our everyday lives but, as non-queer people, we’re not used to looking at them... The depiction of any sort of queer narratives is ridiculed with laughter.” Rohini and Sheena are both looking forward to using theatre as a medium of unbounded expression and celebration of queerness in India – exactly what Gaysi Family has been using its platform for for the past decade.
“We collectively think that people, including those who identify outside the binary, are best to tell their own stories. We want to empower and get behind more authentic conversations because inclusivity and acceptance are core values at Tinder, ” says Taru Kapoor, General Manager of Tinder India. Similarly, Priya says that the audience can expect an evening of laughter, wit, and humour as the audience “finds resemblances to their own lives, fears, losses and celebrations.
Sheena hopes the audience comes away with the notion that the human experience is complex, nuanced, and emotional and that we are more alike than we are different. “This is [the show’s] exploration of our worlds. We thought, ‘How do you best make it an evening that is engaging, moving, and entertaining?’” Sheena explains of the truly human sentiment and thought behind the production.
Pinky Promise will not die out as a one-time theatrical performance, says Gaysi Family. Envisioning this as a long-term project, the team at Gaysi Family want to curate more stories and experiences and work with different actors, writers, and directors across India. “We hope to travel with this project to other parts of India, and hopefully create a unique collective movement of resistance and celebration of our lives!” says Priya.
What will not only be a production, but also a strong statement of freedom and pride celebration by writers, actors, one director, and the Gaysi team, Pinky Promise is a piece of art for Mumbai’s queer community, by Mumbai’s queer community.
Pinky Promise is free for all on Dec. 9 from 5 to 8 p.m. at HOP: House of Party in Andheri west.
Feature image by: Gaysi Family (poster 1: “10 Years Of Joy” by Adrija; poster 2:“10 Years Of Resistance” by Priyanka Paul)
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