Nine urban trans women will share their life stories in this theatre performance

Glimpses from rehearsals and prep for the play. Pics Courtesy/Vinod Sebastian

It is rare for marginalised voices to be heard on mainstream platforms. This weekend, Bengaluru-based Sharanya Ramprakash will present Nava, which tells the stories of nine urban trans women through the Navarasa (nine rasas). "A dear friend of mine is the founder of the Aravani Art Project that paints large murals on buildings and uses public spaces to bring visibility for trans people. I collaborated with them and many of the performers work with the project," says Ramprakash.

"Nava means new, and that's one of the reasons why we chose the name for the performance. The other reason was that the Navarasa is an upper-caste concept, which specifies nine human emotions and how they are interpreted or emoted. We wanted to challenge that and say that a trans person may experience these emotions in a completely different way," Ramprakash explains.

Ramprakash shares an example of Shanti who tells a story from a time when she was engaged in sex trade, and a group of policemen started chasing her. The only way she could escape was by jumping into and crawling through a sewage pipe that was full of disgusting things. She says she found cleanliness in that sewage pipe; the disgusting part was actually the cops. "Similarly, in Jyoti's story, she talks about how she constantly feels unsafe, and the place where she finds safety and peace is in a nearby graveyard, which regular people are scared of. So what really is fear or disgust? We have tried to redefine some of these assumptions," she reiterates.

Most of the trans women are engaged in sex work and begging to earn a living, and have never performed on stage. Getting them to attend workshops, rehearsals, and to open up was a challenging process. "The lives of these women are so unpredictable. Someone is arrested on one day, someone else is a victim of violence on another day. They would work late into the night and then attend rehearsals in the morning. They are the people who you usually spot from the windows of your car. They understand performance but in a very different way," explains Ramprakash. "They shared so much. It was tough for me to decide how much of what they had revealed in our ‘safe space' during rehearsals could be included in a performance," she admits.

The cast of the play remains constant, and for the director, that was non-negotiable. In the past, when there have been instances when a cast member has not been able to make it to the final performance, the narrative of the play has been modified to accommodate their absence. "One of the actors lost her legs in an accident. She's back in the show now with a new leg. I didn't want to replace a cast member since these are such personal stories. During the act, we stand in silence in the part where the actor was supposed to perform, to acknowledge that they couldn't be there. The actors remain constant but their lives go on, and they have so many new stories and experiences to share," reveals Ramprakash.

The performance is in Kannada and Tamil but has English subtitles displayed on a screen. The group will be performing outside their home state Karnataka, for the first time.

On: April 1, 8.30 pm; April 2 and 3, 6 pm and 8.30 pm
At: G5A Warehouse, Mahalaxmi West
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Cost: Rs 500