Catch these drag artistes in Superqueens, a musical at The Piano Man in Delhi

It takes Aishwarya Ayushmaan 5 hours to remodel into Lush Monsoon — a drag queen. The course of consists of getting hair and make up performed and slipping into a shimmery, shiny robe. “Every queen has their own signature make up. That’s why we don’t want make up artists. You need to relax and delve into the process,” says Lush. Now, Lush and her different drag queens are all set to carry out in India’s First Drag Musical — Superqueens at The Piano Man in Delhi.

The manufacturing is a tribute to inclusivity, identification, creativity and group. For drag is not only about glitter, excessive make up and loud hair, it is usually about self acceptance and love for oneself.

“Even though I was queer, I couldn’t connect to queer people at first. When I first saw drag queens on stage, I realised there are people so inspirational and at the same time ostracised for being feminine,” says Lush, 32. A lawyer by occupation, Lush reveals that she thought she couldn’t turn out to be a drag queen. RuPaul’s Drag Race offered drag to me, particularly once I heard her track ‘Sissy That Walk’, she says. That impressed Lush to do her first drag at residence. “When I saw myself in the mirror, it was an out of body experience,” she exclaims, the preliminary goosebumps nonetheless defining her tone. Scared and closeted, Lush was but to return out to her family and friends. Which she did in 2017 at Delhi’s Queer Festival.

When Lush began performing, she drew flak from the lawyer group. But issues are higher now and they’re being supportive, she says.

Betta Naan Stop, a drag queen from Delhi

Lush and the opposite performing drag queens — Betta Naan Stop, Hash Brownie, Whacker Cracker and Sickk, every have compelling tales to inform about their transformation, acceptance, defiance, journey, life decisions… And these narratives are woven collectively as one theatre manufacturing peppered with music, track, and dance. The music is a mixture of western classical, Bollywood, disco. Songs that, they are saying, make you need to break shackles and stereotypes, like ‘Born This Way’, ‘This Is Me’, ‘Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja’… The present guarantees to be as quirky, enjoyable, and flavourful because the queens’ names.

“My drag name came to me when I was literally eating butter chicken and butter naan. I wanted a three word name… and Non Stop became Naan Stop. Over the years, a lot of meaning got attached to my name,” laughs 32-year-old Betta Naan Stop, who has been doing drag for eight years.

“We also perform at weddings and divorce parties. A bunch of 70-year-old women called us to perform at a kitty party,” laughs Betta, including that they repeatedly carry out with the Lalit group throughout the nation. “We also performed at Magnetic Fields. Drag is versatile — themes vary from mujra to classical and Bollywood. Now we want to show what drag can do in theatre,” she says.

Behind The Scenes: At a practise session earlier than the present
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

For Vivek Mansukhani, director of Superqueens, that is the primary time he has directed a mixture of drag and theatre. “I have done traditional theatre work — comedies, thrillers, drama, musicals. This is a completely different vocabulary as far as writing goes,” he says. Lush and Betta received in contact with Vivek and needed him to place collectively a full size play (nearly 90 minutes lengthy) with dialogues. They brainstormed, did workshops, and collaborated on this. Vivek helped the drag stars discover themselves as actors. He says, “It was rewarding to delve into their lives. I am grateful that they trusted me with their stories.”

Superqueens will happen on July 10 and 13 at The Piano Man, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, 8.30 pm onwards. For tickets go online to thepianoman.in