Gabriel is a music composer and experimental vocalist. Bijuriya is a drag artist engaging with South Asian culture. Gabriel values innovation and risk taking as he navigates Eurocentric artistic scenes. On social media, Bijuriya lip-syncs her way into the hearts of brown queers. Both of them have marginal practices but they have very different audiences. Gabriel and Bijuriya are one person; it’s time to bring them together on one stage.

Code-switching between drag performance, original songs, experimental sound design and the porosity between singing and lip-syncing, this piece celebrates the artist’s brownness through an array of unexpected talents. A quirky yet vulnerable exploration of their inadequacy to fully represent the subcultures they seek to embrace.

Creative Team

Concept and performance: Gabriel Dharmoo (Bijuriya)
Technical Direction: Jon Cleveland
Light Design: Jon Cleveland
Assistant to Light Design and to Tech Direction: Michael Tonus
Sound Design: Gabriel Dharmoo (Bijuriya)
Original songs: Bijuriya and Gabriel Ledoux
Voice, cello, steel pan and harmonium: Bijuriya
Electric guitar: Gabriel Ledoux
Additional vocals: Vidita Kanniks
Costumes: Bijuriya, Julie Pichette, Angela Rassenti
Wigs: Heaven Genderfck
Sets accessories: Bijuriya
Stage Assistants: Elizabeth Lima, Keith Fernandez

Produced by MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and Pandemic Theatre, presented as part of Queer Performance Camp, in partnership with LaChapelle Scènes contemporaines and Studio 303, with the support of MAI’s Alliance program and residency program.

Production History

March 2022 • MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) • Montréal, QC

Supporters

Special thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts, Paul Neudorf, Sarah Albu, Sandeep Bhagwati, Claudia Chan Tak, Noah Drew, Marta Gaspar Carpinteiro, Athena Holmes, Kama La Mackerel, Françoise Major, James O’Callaghan, Julia Martinez Turgeon.