#SeeTheLove through a theatre anthology ‘Short & Salty’

After the recently concluded Queer Made Weekend — an initiative to support LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs — in DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj, Delhi, Gaysi Family is back with yet another event to celebrate queer lives and experiences. This time it’s an anthology of performative pieces, a theatrical production called Short and Salty, in partnership with Inqueerable.

Co-founded by theatre practitioner Vikram Phukan and Queer Ink’s Shobhna S Kumar, Inqueerable is a creative platform that promotes and provides a safe space for queer artists. It staged the first performance of Short and Salty in 2019 to celebrate the anniversary of reading down of Section 377 — a colonial-era law that criminalised homosexuality amongst consenting adults — on the 377th day of the landmark judgement.

Consisting of nine to 10 performative pieces, the 90-min-long theatre production is sponsored by Lenskart as part of their Pride Month 2022’s #SeeTheLove campaign that “brings inclusivity, humanness, and unfiltered conversations into the fold and hopes to ignite a conversation that goes far beyond June and leads to conversations that matter.”

Sakshi Juneja, co-founder of Gaysi Family, and Vikram Phukan spoke to us about Short and Salty.

“Spotlighting and platforming diverse LGBTQIA+ narratives via different mediums have always been at the core of what Gaysi does,” says Sakshi. “Interestingly, urban theatre in contemporary times has [had] very elite connotations and can therefore be quite a gatekept space, both in terms of the narratives it presents, and the people allowed to partake in them, despite it having more inclusive roots. Our hope is to challenge what narratives can be presented in this space and who is allowed to participate, which is why it was so important to us to have an anthology of diverse voices and experiences and to ensure that the entry to such a space was free of cost.”

She further adds that “it’s essential to partner with mainstream Indian brands, especially those like Lenskart that have a widespread reach and social influence in the country” to mainstream LGBTQIA+ experiences and narratives.

Vikram — who tells us that Short and Salty was a spin-off from ‘Short and Sweet’, and the word salty gives a “queer twist” to the phrase — also wants to change the dominant representation of cis-gay stories. The theatre production, whose past editions were performed for ‘Gay Bombay’ and ‘Color Positive’, was put on hold ever since the pandemic broke out. Vikram tells me that “Inqueerable on purpose didn’t organise a virtual production as it’d then require its actors to perform from their respective homes, which aren’t usually safe spaces for everyone.”

For its Gaysi x Lenskart production, the stress is on “the L, B, and T experiences,” he says. While “a few of them were curated from existing works, others are newly made pieces.” He further adds, “When we watch theatre performances, we look for something that can work in isolation. So, we include them as queer excerpts in this ever-evolving anthology. The point is to have more non-masculine, non-cis-gay works. Because in queer spaces, most stories are about cis-gay experiences.”

Though Inqueerable “has had performances with transgender experiences performed by cisgender actors”, the group is “struggling to get pieces with transgender performers.” Because the idea is not to be tokenistic in representation. Vikram says, “It’s not just testimonials and stories. We dramatize so that ideas inherent in those lived experiences can come across in a much more potent way.”

Each performance in this anthology conveys a distinct theatrical sensibility. “One person would be doing an electrifying Lavani, while there’s a dramatized play written in a theatrical mode. Others are devised entirely by performers, where the text becomes an extension of their personalities. Two-three pieces are nonverbal: no text, just action. And the opening is cabaret style,” he says about the anthology that will be performed in Pioneer House, Bandra West, Mumbai on 2 July 2022.

Where: Pioneer House, Bandra West, Mumbai
When: Saturday, 2nd July 2022 (first show: 5 pm, second show: 8 pm)

Saurabh Sharma (He/They) is a Delhi-based queer writer and freelance journalist.

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