Shikhandi at National Centre For The Performing Arts

Shikhandi is perhaps one of the earliest trans-characters known in history/mythology. She appears in the Mahabharata and plays a crucial part in winning the battle of Kurukshetra for the Pandavas. Shikhandi was meant to be born male to avenge an insult in her past life as Amba. But the bigger karmic game unfolds when she is reborn female, raised male, has a sex change on her wedding night when she runs away to the forest (thanks to a Yaksha), and finally fulfils her destiny – to be the cause of Bhishma’s death. A comic, tongue-in-cheek, retelling of the story of Shikhandi, mixing traditional Indian storytelling and contemporary English verse, and questioning gender, sexuality, maleness, femaleness and everything in between, the play was runner-up at the Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Awards 2016.