Celebrate queer love with this theatre performance in Bandra

The cast during a rehearsal. Pics/Aishwarya Deodhar

This weekend, Bandra will witness songs, satire, musical storytelling and drama, all packaged beautifully into a grand show. A kaleidoscopic exploration of queer love, BE-LOVED (theatre, music, queerness and ishq) is an experience that draws from writings across history and literature, and is a reflection of the dynamic and evolving conversations in the queer community.

"The show is an ensemble piece where the cast is a mix of experienced performers along with young, trained theatre practitioners," says Sapan Saran, director of the show, who spent two and half months perfecting the script. "The script is a coming together of various forms of writings by 19 writers. The pieces are knit together such that they move seamlessly from one piece to the other to tell a single idea using a variety of different performative forms," she adds.

The inspiration for the script came to Saran by the amazing texts and writings on queer love, queer ideas and queer histories that she read during her research. "Stories of courage, hope, belonging, passion, longing and compassion - appeared before me as a rich tapestry of ideas that throw light on queer experience in India," she says.

Music and movements play an integral part in this 80-minute theatrical experience that's being presented by Tamaasha Theatre. A live band is part of the show and the music ranges from pop funk to qawwali and sher-o-shayaris, with original compositions in English, Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati.

"I think music plays a big part in our lives in this country. We are surrounded by music all the time - it plays a role in our traditions, it's there in our pop culture, films, in ceremonies, and has this unmatched ability to bring people together. It can touch us in visceral ways. It is this quality that draws me to music," explains the director, and adds that the three different music composers on this project, Amod Bhatt, Mohit Agarwal and Rohit Das, bring with them their unique traditions and sensibilities to the music of the play.

Sapan Saran

Saran works a lot with movement artistes for her plays. "Movement is able to condense emotions and ideas, quite like poetry. It can add rich layers of meanings to a text," she explains. She has worked with contemporary dancer/choreographer Diya Naidu to create a unique vocabulary of movement for this show. The director calls this production a collaboration of various artistes and forms that brings her an unabashed sense of celebration and sheer joy. "It is a play, a play with music, a play with poetry, a play with movement or maybe a play that ‘plays' with multiple plays…" she signs off.

On: August 5 and 6; 7 pm
At: St Andrew's Centre for Philosophy & Performing Arts, St Dominic Road, Bandra West.
Log on to: in.bookmyshow.com
Cost: Rs 400