A Tamil teenager is preparing for their period party – a traditional ritual meant to mark womanhood. But Krish isn’t a girl. And this ‘celebration’ feels more like the opening act of a never-ending performance. As expectations mount, Krish decides to take control. With help from their best friend Brenavee and a growing chosen family, Krish flips the script to throw the degendered party of their dreams.

Set in 2010, in the aftermath of genocide, Period Parrrty is an ode to Tamil survival and self-determination. This is no ordinary coming-of-age story. This is a trans Tamil party. And you’re invited.

Initially developed in a Soho Lab, Kali Theatre first presented Period Parrrty as a short play in our Discovery Programme at Hampstead Theatre where it won the audience vote. It was then presented as a script-in-hand performance in our International Plays Festival.

“A few years ago a friend asked me how I felt about period parties. At the time, this ‘puberty ceremony’ felt like a patriarchal ritual, a signal to our community that this person was a functioning ‘woman’ who would eventually become a bride and a mother. Then my friend asked me what queering a period party might look like. I’d never imagined that before. And that curiosity is what sparked this play. Period Parrrty is a trans, Tamil play. It’s about self-determination, young love and a parent and child really seeing each other for the first time. It’s also about the ritual of coming together and building community in the aftermath of genocide – something which will always shape my family and stories. It is about the lightness we have to hold onto in order to survive.”
Gayathiri Kamalakanthan

Krish                               Elizabeth Green
Brenavee                        Tanvi Virmani
Brintha                           Rani Moorthy

Director                       Gitika Buttoo
Writer                         Gayathiri Kamalakanthan
Movement Director      Sundeep Saini
Designer                         Katie Scott
Sound Designer
& Composer                Niroshini Thambar
Lighting Designer         Jahmiko Marshal
Casting Director            Olivia Barr

Gayathiri Kamalakanthan  Writer
Gayathiri Kamalakanthan is a Tamil writer and producer. Gayathiri is a recipient of the Disabled Poets Prize, the Faber & Andlyn Publisher’s Prize and the RSL Literature Matters Award. Their debut novel-in-verse, Bad Queer, is forthcoming with Faber.  gayathiri.co.uk | @unembarrassable. 

Gitika Buttoo  Director
Gitika is a Queer British South Asian Director from Yorkshire who directs theatre and radio nationally. She has just finished her tenure as a Staff Director at the National Theatre. She was recently appointed a Regional Associate for Tamasha and has been an Artistic Associate at Birmingham Opera Company, an Associate Director for LUNG Theatre Company, and was one of Headlong Theatre’s Origins Directors. She recently won Best Online Audio Production at the Off West End Awards and her work on Tanika Gupta’s play, Love N Stuff was nominated for Best Stage Production at the Asian Media Awards.  Recent credits include Tell Me How It Ends (Liverpool Everyman), ROAD (Oldham Coliseum), The Father & The Assassin (National Theatre), Love N Stuff (Oldham Coliseum, Watford Palace & Sheffield Theatres) and The Jungle Book (Storyhouse, Chester).