Saturday May 07, 2022

Karak Chai| Batch No.1

Karak Chai| Batch no.1

Celebrating all things Theatre, Film, Series and Podcast. I have curated a collection of hidden gems to watch and listen to-- all whilst sipping on your first or fifth Karak Chai. This is batch No.1 of many more to come. I hope you enjoy and do let me know which one was your favourite and also, this is the the first time I am putting this type of episode out. So, please do give me some feedback innit.

The Projects in the episode are as Follows:

Theatre

An Adventure by Vinay Patel & Kash Arshad at Octagon Theatre

An Adventure follows three decades tale of a couple who meet in post-partition India in 1954, marry and move first to Nairobi then 1970s England.

Cast: Esh Alladi, Saba Shiraz, Daon Broni & Jessica Kaur.

Period Party by Gayathiri Kamalakanthan at Hampstead Theatre with Kali Theatre

Period party tells a story of a South Asian non-binary Queer teen. Who through this journey and celebration of a period party is going on a journey of discovering who they are.

Concha by Carly Fernandez & Manisha Sondhi at Brixton House

Concha is a semi-autobiographical show following our lead who is queer and trans, on discovering they have chlamydia, and how they must now inform their recent sexual partners.

Cast: Carly Fernandez.

10 Nights by Shahid Iqbal Khan & Kash Arshad at Bush Theatre with Tamasha Theatre

10 Nights about our lead character Yasser who decides to take part in itikaf, which is sleeping and fasting in the mosque for the last ten nights of Ramadan. And how that experiences pushes him to deal with certain things in the past.

Cast: Zaqi Ismail, Safyan Iqbal & Sumayya Si- Tayaeb.

After The End by Dennis Kelly and Lyndsey Turner at Theatre Royal Stratford East

After The End tells a tale about a city under attack from a nuclear blast. As the dust settles, Louise wakes to find herself in a fallout shelter with Mark, the colleague who has saved her life. They have enough water and food to last two weeks. Now they just need to find a way of surviving each other.

Cast: Nick Blood & Amaka Okafor.

Our Streets by Beth Kapalia & co at Tara Theatre

Our Streets explores through film and live performance, a group of 14-18-year-old women and non-binary people of Wandsworth will take the audience on an adventure through the city, all while never leaving the theatre. Delving into a variety of themes, including recent events and discussions around women’s safety in London, Our Streets will open up the conversation of what Wandsworth could and should look like if we all played a part in designing and imagining our local urban landscapes.

Cast: Hania, Leona, Issy, Charly, Shania, Anousha, Violet, Daniella & Blu.

The Hen-nah Party by Amani Saeed at Richmix

The Hen-Nah Party is all of the joy of a henna night without the stress, gender norms, and aunties at the wedding.

Featured Artists: Amrit Kaur, Amani Saeed, Sanah Ahsan and Meral Alizada.

Rouge by Marion Motin by Rambert Dance

Rouge is about finding our real selves: our instinct and nature, rather than our culture. It’s about leaving the artificial world to just live, to connect with real bodies and real people

Cast: Daniel Davidson, Juan Gil, Liam Francis, Miguel Altunaga, Aishwarya Raut, Simone Damberg Würtz &Guillaume Quéau.

Film

Stalling it by Jemma Moore & Caroline Ward

Stalling It follows five toilet stalls, three bridesmaids, one pregnancy test, one nosey neighbour - zero ideas of what to do next. The 1980's an era of female independence, sexual freedom, experimentation, self expression and style. Sometimes. It's 1988, Sammy, Bethan and Jo are bridesmaids at their best friend's wedding. Their outfits are fabulous, their hair do's are huge, the nuptials have been made and the drinks are now flowing. We join our bridesmaids in the midst of the time honoured female tradition...the joint bathroom break.

Cast: Sophie Hopkin, Jemma Moore, Caroline Ward & Sacharissa Claxton.

Little Sky by Jess X Snow

Little Sky follows the journey of SKY, a Chinese-American pop star who returns to the city they were raised in to find their estranged immigrant father. Haunted by their childhood memories, SKY risks their non-binary identity to end the cycle of violence in their family. In the confrontation, SKY discovers something that changes how they feel about the people they love.

Cast: Wo Chan, Kyoko Takenaka, Fenton Li, Yiging Zhao, Austin Deng, Bruce Liu & Tao Qiu.

How To Raise a Black Boy by Justice Jamal Jones

How To Raise a Black Boy follows four boys as they journey through a fantastical world of black boyhood, queer identity, and fraternity in a modern reimagining of the fairy tale genre.

Cast: Maiya Blaney, Rodney Chrome, Christian Coston-Payne, Emperor Kaioyus, Eric Payne, Rayceen Pendarvis, Justin Smith, Nicklaus Vallie & Cory Walkers.

Yaha Waha by Sarah Li

Yaha Waha follows a South Asian DJ and a performance artist use their platforms to celebrate their heritage.

Cast: Almas Badat, Anthony Pius (Bolly Illusion).

Shams by Pauline Beugnies

Shams follows Eden, a 30-year-old Belgian woman, works in a cultural center a few thousand kilometers away from her home, in the bustling capital of Cairo. She makes a life-changing encounter with a young woman named Shams. One day, Shams brutally disappears. With the support and friendship of two valiant young Egyptians, Eden starts a fight against her own fears, denials and bias to find Shams.

Cast: Claire Beugnies, Amina El Banna, Reem El Maghraby, Zainab Magdy & Alaa Taha.

Baba by Adam Ali & Sam Arbor

Baba is about an unexpected discovery forces Britannia, a gay Libyan teenager, to question whether to stay or flee his beloved homeland.

Cast: Adam Ali, Mudar Abbar, Ahmed Elmusrati, Ali Gadema, Samar Abu Kaf, Elysia Kazinos, Colette Dala Tchantcho & Usaim Younnis.

Beirut Dreams in Color by Michael Collins

Beirut Dreams in Color tells the stories of Masrou’ Leila, a Lebanese rock band with an outspoken gay singer, and Sarah Hegazy, an Egyptian activist. Both parties have experienced oppression because of their sexual orientation and beliefs. The short documentary shows what it’s like for the LGBTQIA+ community to be oppressed and threatened by the governments in the Middle East.

The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night by Fawzia Mirza & Kausar Mohammad

The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night is about Pakistani Muslim woman brings her Puerto Rican girlfriend home for the first time on the family's annual game night.

Cast: Kausar Mohammad, Vico Ortiz, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, Pia Shah & D'Lo.

Meenakhsi Sundareshwar by Vivek Soni & Aarsh Vora

Meenakhsi Sundareshwar is about a couple who are forced to live apart due to a unique job prospect. Follow along as the two newlyweds face the hassles, hiccups - and hilarity - that arise from their long distance marriage.

Cast: Sanya Malhotra, Abhimanyu Dasani , Shivkumar Subramaniam, Nivedita Bhargava, Purnendu Bhattacharya, Komal Chhabria, Manoj Mani Mathew, Archana Iyer, Ritika Shrotri, Kalp Shah, Mahesh Pillai, Sonali Sachdev, Varun Shashi Rao, Sukhesh Arora, Khuman Nongyai, Danish Sood & Guneet Wahan

Muhafiz by Pradipta Ray & Ashutosh Pathak

Muhafiz is set against a backdrop of sectarian violence, can a gay Hindu man find the courage to help a Muslim?

Cast: Jaydeep Ashra, Deepak Chunara, Rishabh Dhangra, Prerna Gandhi, Pradeep Kumar, Arfi Lamba, Prince Mahajan, Angel Modi, Kamiesh Rajendra Patil, Rohan Pujari, Sushant Sharma, Mukesh Shukla, Akash Sinha, Shiv Tandan & Neha Vyas.

Series

Delhi Crime by Richie Mehta.

Delhi Crime is based on the Nirbhaya case, Delhi Crime follows the Delhi Police investigation into the finding of the men who perpetrated this crime.

Cast: Shefali Shetty, Adil Hussain, Denzil Smith, Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang · Yashaswini Dayama, Aaron Kaplan, Jeff Sagansky, Anurag Arora, Jaya Bhattacharya, Vinod, Sharawat, Gopal Datt, Sidharth Bhardwaj, Swati Bhatia, Gaurav Rana, Amitabh Acharya, Sanjay Bishnoi, Shobhna Bharadwaj, Mridul Sharma & Abhilasha Singh.

A Black Lady Sketch Show by Robin Thede.

A Black Lady Sketch Show is A half-hour sketch comedy written by and starring Robin Thede.

Cast: by Robin Thede, Gabrielle Dennis, Ashley Nicole Black, Quinta Brunson and Skye Townsend.

Yearly Departed by Linda Medoza & Amazon Prime

Yearly Departed is a comedy special that tackles some of the end of year highlights that people probably want to forget about. There is a 2020 show as well a 2021 instalment.

Cast: (2020) Phoebe Robinson featuring Rachel Brosnahan, Tiffany Haddish, Patti Harrison, Natasha Leggero, Sarah Silverman, Christina Aguilera, Natasha Rothwell, and Ziwe. (2021) Yvonne Orji featuring Chelsea Peretti, Jane Fonda, Aparna Nancherla, Alessia Cara, Dulcé Sloan, Megan Stalter & X Mayo.

Special by Ryan O’Connel

Special follows A young gay man with cerebral palsy branches out from his insular existence in hopes of finally going after the life he wants.

Cast: Ryan O'Connell, Jessica Hecht, Punam Patel. Marla Mindelle, Augustus Prew, Patrick Fabian & Max Jenkins.

Sort Of by Bilal Baig & Fab Filippo

Sort Of follows a gender-fluid millennial who straddles various identities, exposing the identities and labels that are no longer applicable.

Cast: Bilal Baig , Gray Powell, Amanda Cordner, Ellora Patnaik, Grace Lynn Kung, Supinder Wraich, Alanna Bale & Kaya Kanashiro.

Chernobyl by Craig Mazin

Chernobyl is based on a true story where in April 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics becomes one of the world's worst man-made catastrophes.

Cast: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Paul Ritter, Jessie Buckley, Adam Nagaitis, Con O'Neill, Adrian Rawlins, Sam Troughton, Robert Emms, David Dencik, Nadia Clifford, Douggie McMeekin, Alan Williams, Emily Watson, Paul Ritter, Karl Davues, Michael Socha, Laura Elphinstone & Jan Riccia.

Q-Force by Gabe Liedman

Q- Force follows handsome secret agent and his team of LGBTQ superspies embark on extraordinary adventures.

Cast: Sean Hayes, Matt Rogers, Wanda Sykes, Patti Harrison, Gary Cole, David Harbour & Laurie Metcalf.

Honourable Mentions

Made in Heaven on Amazon Prime.
Four More Shots Please! On Amazon Prime.

Podcasts

Las Culturistas by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers.

Las Culturistas is a pop-culture and comedy podcast co-hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers,

Karak Chai| Batch No.1

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