Mar 28 2025 to Mar 28 2025 6:30 p.m.

Price: Rs 350 Book/Buy

Where

Courtyard Koota

Ground floor, Good Earth Tarana Good Earth Malhar, near Rajarajeswari medical college Kambipura, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560074

Event Description

About the piece:

“This is the Male Washroom” is born from my experience of queerness in the context of the male washroom. The (male) washroom isn’t merely a utilitarian space, it is a space of performance. Performance of gender, of caste, of mingling classes while peeing and exploring sexuality. Performance of masculinity in pee races, vulnerability in the fear of being seen peeing. Shame enmeshed in the hurry with which men complete peeing. It involves confronting one’s own ideas of masculinity when men see a queer body applying kaajal or changing into a palazzo, when they check which washroom it is. The Washroom isn’t as mundane as we think it is.

Washrooms are an extension of our notions of masculinity, I think. The quiet of the male washroom and the ruckus, both scared me for the longest time. As much as it felt like a space of judgement, it also felt like a space of sexual exploration. As much as there was fear, there was also joy in beating the system in moments. 

This piece is an amalgamation of these moments and more. This piece is a dance theatre exploration of gender, performance and masculinity through a queer lens and critique of the male washroom. The piece binds my varied gendered personal experiences in the male washroom with collective experiences of gender and its performance.

How much of our identity as people is governed by performance?

What relationship could Bharatanatyam as a form share with masculinity? Does it preserve it, nourish it, break it, or play with it?

As grey as we acknowledge we are, what is this fascination for the ideal, for the absolute white, especially in the political reality that we live in today?

What are these standards of masculinity and gender that one is drawn towards, again and again, in varied contexts?

What could vulnerable male friendships seem like?

Do spaces like the Male Washroom hold different realities for different people? What could tickle the washroom into being kinder?

Could friendships be spaces of collective solidarity, strength and love apart from genuine affection for each other?

‘This is the Male Washroom’ is an inquiry into these questions and more.

-Talin Subbaraya (Performer and co-creator)

About the cast:

Priyanka Chandrasekhar (Dramaturg and Director)

Priyanka is a movement artist based in Bangalore. Recently awarded with the Karthika Nair Best Dancer award by the Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards, Priyanka’s training has been primarily in the classical dance forms of Bharathanatyam and Kathak. Her practice infuses elements and approaches of both these styles seamlessly. Additionally, her education and practice of law has significantly shaped her creative pursuits, supplying it with criticality, sensitivity and systematic ways of thinking. Priyanka’s work is inventive and distinct in its aesthetic, intent, and sensibilities, enmeshed however, with a discipline that is reluctant to evolve with the times. 

Priyanka began her training at the age of five and effortlessly went on to do her debut performance at the age of nine, displaying mastery of technique and a rare promise and resolve to carve a path in this field. During her training she always stood out with her talent, hard work and meticulous nature. Early in her career, she performed extensively in both solo and group formats in India and abroad, across important venues, Sabhas and festivals. She also bagged many state awards and received much appreciation from critiques, testimony to her entrenchment in the vocabulary of the form. She is also an ‘A’ grade artist of Doordarshan. 

After many years of traditional training in both the forms, Priyanka stepped out on her own and today, is the founder and director of ‘The Nirali Collective’. Nirali began with the core idea of reimagining ‘indian’ ‘classical’ dance pedagogy in training, performance, choreography and community building, while simultaneously questioning it. Priyanka is also a curator and collaborator on many projects, performances, workshops and artists that Nirali hosts. With the many initiatives that she leads or participates in, she hopes to create a revised culture, solidarity, and safety in classical dance, while continuing to investigate the tradition, structure, familiarity and rigour that enable her.  She also dabbles in theatre, which she thoroughly enjoys. She has acted in plays, a film, directed a play reading, co-directed and devised theatre performances. 

 In her performances, Priyanka engages with the politics of the form, its history, her identity and privilege. Her work is rooted in tradition but is relevant and accessible. She works with personal stories, present day realities and politics, with special focus on gender, marginalization, protest and justice. Her choreography is anchored in intent and an invitation to reflect, introspect and question. Shape-shifting by deconstructing formats, Priyanka creates with her unique viewpoint and lens. Charged with the ambition of taking the road not taken to fulfil the needs and gaps of her practice and community, Priyanka explores interdisciplinary approaches, methods, and collaborations that provide space and agency for her co-creators and audiences. Her work, on stage and in the classroom is experimental, playful but thought provoking and coloured with multiple perspectives. Situated in a flux, ahead of the times and tales of her practice, Priyanka’s work interrogates and deconstructs the culture of her practice, bringing together the idiom of Bharatanatyam, law, critical thinking, creativity and story-telling.

Talin Subbaraya (Performer and co-creator)

Talin Subbaraya is an artist based in Bangalore. His artistic practice is based in movement, writing and theatre. His current practice of the arts is an attempt to find ways to tell stories from his personal lens, thus leading to experiments with the forms he practices. He is currently learning Bharatanatyam and exploring performance making with Priyanka Chandrasekhar at Nirali, a dance school and collective based in Bangalore. He is also part of the performing ensemble at the Nirali Collective. 

He was a part of G5A Foundation and Soho Theatre's collaborative script writing program, "Writer's Lab Mumbai" in 2021. During the same year, he was also a resident artist at Smarter Digital Realities, a residency curated by Padmini Ray Murray and produced by Sandbox Collective and Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore that led to the making of “An Alarippu”, a dance film created in collaboration with Priyanka Chandrasekhar and Armaan Mishra, that brought together his experiences of homosexuality across public spaces in Bangalore, and the alarippu, a piece from the Bharatanatyam repertoire. 

He was a part of the Unrehearsed Artist (Virtual) Residency curated by Nava Dance Theatre, San Francisco in 2022. He was also one of the recipients of the Prince Claus Seed Awards, Amsterdam and Genderealities, a grant by reFrame institute of art and design, Delhi, in 2023.

Sachin Ravindran (Music Collaborator) 

Sachin, is an actor, singer and Kalaripayattu practitioner, who received the Inlaks Theatre award 2024. An architect-turned artist, he is currently training in Thullal under Kalamandalam Suresh Kaliyath. After graduating from Drama School Mumbai, he has been a part of ensemble at Indianostrum Theatre, Pondicherry and Our Theatre Collective, Bangalore. 

He is also trained in Therukoothu and Ottan Thullal, theatre forms from Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Also a budding screen actor, he dreams of making films and his long term goal is to build a space that supports artists.

Medha Srikantapuram (Production Manager)

Medha Srikantapuram is a dancer based in Bangalore. She is learning Bharatanatyam under Priyanka Chandrasekhar at The Nirali Collective. Alongside her artistic journey, she works as a data scientist. She recently dipped her toes into production work during the latest show of Kaafi by The Nirali Collective. She has also previously worked with Priyanka to reimagine traditional vocabulary, re-choreographing a javali with a personal touch and a contemporary narrative. Medha wishes to perform more and delve into personal storytelling through the art form, helping her explore new dimensions in its structure.

Image Courtesy: Armaan Mishra

Poster Courtesy: Shruthi 

Age- 16+