On Sunday, 29th January, at Sitara Studio, Lower Parel, Mumbai, at 7.30 pm, queer Indian performing artists from Mumbai and beyond will come together for a one-of-a-kind night of celebration and defiance.

Queer Ink, a Mumbai-based publishing house, and ivo theatre, based in London have teamed up to commission five new performances from members of the queer community and our allies. They will be joined by guest artists Alisha Pais, Gaurab Ghosh, The Dancing Queens and ivo theatre's Jo Tyabji as drag persona Joé de Vivre.

The five commissioned pieces are:

accelerated intimacy's experimental Dance Like A Mother, which explores growing old and discovering that we are slowly becoming our parents, or versions of them, through the use of drag, spontaneous dancing, memories and spoken word;
Tricycle Productions'Monsoon which explores Dilip Chitre's poem ''Monsoons of Lovemaking Storm Out of Memory'' told via a devised performance involving text, movement and music;
Shivam Sharma's exciting new piece which unpacks the use of mephadrone to facilitate crazy sex benders amongst gay men;
performance artist Ruve Narang's exploration of a bisexual identity;
and Shruti Mishra and Manisha Malakar's physical performance which investigates intimacy and emotionally charged physical contact between two women, and asks what virginity means in the context of queer experience.

Jo Tyabji, co-founder of ivo theatre, says ''At the start of 2017, it feels important to reach across national borders and remind ourselves of our strength.''

Jo will introduce her drag act, Joé de Vivre, to Mumbai audiences. The performance uses M.I.A.'s track Borders to express a tightly packed slug of politics across the intersects of gender, race and violent nationalism.

The evening will also feature guest appearances from Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Alisha Pais, and The Dancing Queens, a transgender-led dance troupe headed by Abhina Aher, Urmi Jadhav and Madhuri Sarode. Through sensitive choreography, the Dancing Queens embodies, promotes, and fights for the rights of everyone to be who they want to be and love who they want to love. Last but not least, Gourab Ghosh makes his way from Delhi to take us through the journey of a famous female impersonator, Rani of the Bangla Jatra.

Shobhna Kumar, director of Queer Ink, says ''ivo theatre is creating bold and innovative experimental theatre in the UK and it would be great to see more of that in Indian queer performances. This could be the beginning of a long term partnership, allowing us to take Indian queer stories to the UK and beyond.''

Mumbai Theatre Guide takes no responsibility for change in schedule.