The Gentleman’s Club aka TAPE comes to Hyderabad for the first time. The play, which follows the lives of drag kings, is being brought to the city by theatre artiste Harika Vedula and is all set to be performed at Rangbhoomi, Gachibowli, on Saturday. Ahead of the play, we speak to the theatre group Patchwork Ensembles, who are the playwrights and actors themselves, to learn more about what’s to come. “The play is about drag kings and is set in the fictitious, underground queer club called The Gentleman’s Club where night after night, they have a collection of drag kings who perform. A documentary filmmaker comes to the place to interview them and that’s essentially the premise of the play,” says Sheena Khalid, one of the actors and playwrights.
The plot centres around Rocky, a.k.a Shamsher, who pays homage to late veteran actor Shammi Kapoor and the golden era of Hindi cinema. The cast includes Puja Sarup, Sheena Khalid, Rachel D’Souza, Amey Mehta, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee and Prashansa Sharma.
What: The Gentleman’s Club aka TAPE, When: Saturday, 6 pm and 8.30 pm
Where: Rangbhoomi, Gachibowli
The concept was created by Sheena, Puja Sarup and Vikram Phukan. “The three of us were interested in exploring the performance style of drag and got a wonderful team of performers on board. We chose to go for a devising process for the script,” Sheena tells.
Explaining what that form of writing/performing is, she says, “It refers to the script and the story is created on the floor, in the rehearsal room, with all the actors together. All the performers brought in their drag personas and we built a world around them.”
The choreographer Amey Mehta will also be performing on Saturday. “He has helped us create performances within a performance. Many of our actors, like Ratnabali, have created their own drag character. That’s how devising writing works — the actors brings in their interests and experiences, and we work around that.”
About performing in Hyderabad for the first time, the Mumbai-based group says, “Hairka had reached out to us to perform in Hyderabad and this is a city we haven’t performed in yet. We are excited for the upcoming show.”
The performers at Patchwork Ensembles, Sheena says, are different as they never look to achieve anything through their work or send a message to the audience. “These are worlds and characters we are curious and excited about and we only aim to put them before our audience,” she says. With women who revel in drag performance, the first-of-its-kind cabaret-like show aims to take the audience into a world that accepts one the way they are.