Gender Bender: Queer voices take centrestage in city theatre scene

On June 26, even as Pride Month draws to a close, a stage in Andheri will witness something unprecedented: a man performing lavani as a man. Traditionally considered as much a woman’s domain as ballet or Bharatanatyam, the centuries-old Maharashtrian dance form has long featured women playing women and men cross-dressing to play women. But when Sopinath Patokar takes the stage, his character will seduce his lover through a masculine version of lavani, stripped of its signature feminine gestures. “This has never happened before,” says Bhushan Korgaonkar, who has worked with lavani artists for two decades. “A seductive lavani has never been performed by a man with masculine attributes.”

That break from tradition is just one of the many subversions in 'Rang Birangi Lavni', a Hindi musical play co-directed by Korgaonkar and Kunal Vijaykar. It features lavani artists performing seven nugget-sized stories with queer protagonists—a non-binary person on a date, a trans woman explaining the power of make-up to her brother, and even a character in love with a tree.

“Though lavani has always had a colourful legacy, the word ‘queer’ did not exist,” says Korgaonkar. “Our effort is to normalise its queer themes by stating them matter-of-factly, without colouring or baggage.” Many stories, drawn from the artists’ lives, resonated even with non-queer audiences. “They said they could relate to it and did not find anything out of the ordinary.”

Since homosexuality was decriminalised in 2018, Mumbai’s theatre has increasingly embraced nuanced queer narratives. Playwright Vikram Phukan has been both a chronicler and contributor to this shift. As a drama school faculty member, he recently led students through a course exploring 100 queer-themed plays, many echoing his lived experiences.

Phukan’s 2019 debut 'Those Left Behind Things' was inspired by Iranian asylum seekers he met in Nottingham. His latest, 'Postcards from Colaba', blends theatre and heritage walk, guiding audiences through Colaba’s lanes with promenade-style performances that reveal queer histories through verse. The idea stemmed from an article he once wrote about Mumbai’s underground gay scene in the 1980s. To prepare the cast, he sent them on a “treasure hunt” across Colaba to find sites tied to queer lives.

The play intertwines archival and fictional elements, referencing figures like filmmaker Riyad Vinci Wadia and theatre maverick Sultan “Bobby” Padamsee. In one scene, audiences are handed dessert, merging sensory and emotional memory. Now staged in English and Hindi, it has connected with many who weren’t expecting a play at all. “Most audiences are non-queer, mainly women—many of whom connect with its universal themes,” says Phukan.

In 2022, G5A staged 'Nava', directed by Sharanya Ramprakash, where nine urban trans women interpreted the classical 'navarasa' through performances based on their lives—from the joy of wearing a saree for the first time to the trauma of emerging from a sewage pipe. “They weren’t trained actors,” says Phukan, who saw the play. “The performances emerged through workshops and storytelling.” Supported by international cultural grants, the play marked a shift in both representation and reception. “Actors are more comfortable with queer roles now, and audiences—especially women—are more accepting,” he says.

When 'Be-Loved' opened, director Sapan Saran was unsure how audiences would respond to its portrayal of queer love and longing. “I was quite worried... especially at an emotional level,” she says. “But seeing the overwhelming response, I’ve learnt to trust my core instincts as a theatre maker and a human being. I have much more faith now in the fact that theatre can bring a diverse group of people together while celebrating their diversity.”

That diversity, for her, is foundational, not performative. The play weaves together poetry, dialogues, music, abstraction, and arguments, without a fixed script. “Form follows text,” says Saran. “The material was so rich, it was impossible to do justice to it in any conventional way.” She kept 'Be-Loved' rooted in contemporary voices. “We deliberately stayed away from mythology. We were interested in what queerness means to us and society today.”

Censorship, however, remains a concern. Some directors submit sanitised scripts to avoid cuts; others take risks. One such director submitted a dystopian play where resistance to state censorship is central. “I didn’t want to alter the script just to secure a certificate easily,” he says. A dramatic reveal where the protagonist is shown to be gay was flagged—but a board member also left a note saying that while homosexuality remained sensitive, the scene was integral. “I was surprised he actually read the script and responded with such nuance,” says the director, who assumed it would be a mere formality.

For Puja Sarup, queerness on stage isn’t just about identity, but about reimagining possibility. Her drag king persona, Rocky—“definitely Shammi Kapoor himself”—channels gender-fluid swagger. “It wasn’t the stoic and ‘gambhir’ hero,” she says. “The way he moved… wow, a hero can be like this.” That departure from hypermasculine tropes is part of the joy. “It’s just joyous playing Rocky.”

'The Gentlemen’s Club', which was co-created by Phukan and premiered in 2015, also features Sarup as a drag king real estate agent-turned-comedian. “He cracks the most ‘bakwas’ jokes,” she laughs. “They’re not funny and can be offensive. But that’s what makes it interesting—the audience knows it’s a woman playing him. If it was just a guy, it would be very different... There’s a moment of ‘wait, what?’ And I think that’s where it gets layered.”

In the 2000s, Mumbai saw an all-male lavani troupe—'Bin Baykancha Tamasha'—where men rigorously trained to play women. Today, performers like Akshay Malvankar, lead in 'Rang Birangi Lavni', reclaim lavani from caste and gender stigma. Malvankar won awards like the Balgandharva and Akluj Lavani Festival prizes. Now, the form embraces queerness in all its shades. “Not every story has a serious message,” says Korgaonkar. “Sometimes, the best way to normalise something is through humour.”

Follow more information on Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here. Get real-time live updates on rescue operations and check full list of passengers onboard AI 171.