Theatre artistes redefine the concept of ‘coming out’; Pune lauds the initiative

The world loves couples! Be it the evergreen Romeo and Juliet or Laila and Majnu, Heer and Ranjha or Sohni and Mahiwal; their stories are etched in history owing to their struggle for love to prevail. But how often does one consider a similar narrative for a Romeo and Romeo, or a Laila and Laila?
A fortnight ago, Coming Out, an experiment of shared stories, saw individuals (publically) coming out of the closet with true tales.Part of the Project Beard initiative, it turned what society perceives as queer, and the concept of coming out on its head. Going by responses, the initiative is set to define a new wave in Pune’s theatre culture, one that will see many more come out of the closet.
Parallel narratives exist too
The need to bring alternative stories to the fore saw city-based theatre professional Hina Siddiqui initiating Project Beard recently, to get ‘queer’ and ‘mainstream’ individuals to tell their stories. “We began research to get people to join the theatre initiative,” says Hina. After attending queer events, including the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and the recent gay pride march in Pune, the findings were twofold: “Many wanting to talk about their identity, didn’t want to be the ones talking about it, and there was a ‘dearth’ of queer women, especially above the age of 25.”
Moving the research onto a popular app that facilitates communication between mutually interested users, she found that many women, who identified themselves as queer, were stuck in heterosexual marriages. “Some declined joining the project when they heard of the ‘queer’ angle. We finally found our cast in a group of individuals averaging 20 years of age,” says Hina.

A journey of discovery
The play was a three-month process. “While I initially had a script in mind, there were real stories being shared by these young individuals. I thought it best to give these accounts a voice in the first initiative, over a fictional script” says Hina.
Besides improvisation, characterisation and generic theatre exercises, the group revisited concepts of gender and sexuality. “It’s only after we felt fully convinced that we committed them to paper,” said the cast members.
Various theatre techniques went into bringing Coming Out, including psychodrama (a form of therapeutic drama), playback theatre (getting stories from and performing them for the community), ensemble theatre (where the cast isn’t character driven), immersive theatre (where the play isn’t a viewing but a participative experience), performance art (inclusion of installations, etc.) and reportage (telling the stories as is).

Coming Out
It was an amalgamation of music, art installation, poetry and storytelling. Interestingly, few of the eight narratives addressed sexuality. They redefined ‘coming out’ as breaking the silence and sharing stories that otherwise wouldn’t find place in public circles. Veera Pusdekar, a cast member, said, “My story was about falling in love with myself. I was, and still am to an extent, socially awkward. Hence for me, coming out, meant coming out of the shell.” Similarly, Riddhi Soparkar chose to come out with an incident of being taken advantage of, under the pretext of a “lunch date”. “This took place when I was young; talking about it never occurred to me. It’s one of those incidences that few choose to be vocal about,” shares Riddhi, who added that every time she’s delivered the monologue, she’s felt a bit lighter, a bit more healed.
Yet, the end result of these narratives was the stark reality of identifying with having faced similar situations; also feeling guilty of putting someone through them at some point of time.
What’s next?
“The honesty and bravery of the stories stood out most, but we also received criticism that we were narrating these stories in safe spaces where audiences come with open minds,” explains Hina. She now plans to take the initiative to schools, colleges and working spaces, where similar incidents unfold regularly.
Going forward, a music video and a play that’ll look at societal constructs of feminism and masculinity are also on the cards.

On redefining ‘queer’
At the same time, city gay rights activist Bindumadhav Khire notes, that terms like ‘queer’ and ‘coming out’ were specifically adopted for sexual minorities to address their specific issues. “Expanding the usage of such terms to mainstream issues, not restricted to any specific community, might dilute their purpose. Perhaps coining new terms might help,” he says.
On the flipside, IT professional Souvik Ghosh points out that the word ‘queer’ has nothing to do with sexuality. “I remember having a conversation with Ashok Row Kavi (a prominent LGBT rights activist) about where we were heading by expanding LGBT to LGBTQ, I and A. He said, the very reason this is being done is to slowly blend with the mainstream. I feel the use of such terminology creates boundaries. There will come a time the abbreviation will get so long, that it will lead to its eradication,” says Souvik, who led the recent gay pride march in the city.
(Pictures by Shashank Sane and Karan Ahuja)