Dark & Delicious

Appropriate for Ungdom and Videregåendeskole

Duration: 45 minutes, including an interactive Q&A session

Language: English (with some dialogues in Urdu, which are translated to spoken English. )

Format:  Live theatrical performance with puppetry, acting, multimedia, and audience interaction

Directed by: Cliff Moustache

Created & Performed by Varun Narain & Shaad Qureshi

SYNOPSIS

In this powerful and evocative performance, a queer botanist and a poet find themselves surviving underground, hidden from a world hostile to their identities. As they reconnect with life through the world of plants and flavors of ginger, saffron, and chocolate, their emotions intertwine with the plants’ messages, offer solace in a reality where homophobia and transphobia are ever-present threats. The plants reveal their botanical secrets, histories, and roles in human life, guiding the characters to confront and reframe the violent and oppressive experiences they’ve endured—reflecting the harsh realities of the physical and mental abuse faced by LGBTQI+ individuals.

Life-sized puppetry, acting and poetry intertwine, creating a fantastical queer reality where flavors, emotions, botany, and art converge in an act of survival and healing from the deep wounds of societal prejudice.

“Dark and Delicious” supported by Safemuse, was initially presented at The Safe Havens Conference in Athens in November 2023 followed by repeated stagings at The Nordic Black Theatre, Three in March 2024, two in June, under Oslo Pride 2024 and four performances in April 2025.

Duration: 45minutes

Language: English with some songs from Bollywood

Created & Performed by Varun Narain

SYNOPSIS

Varun’s queer journey into the arts of Drag and Puppetry began as a child, as they played with dolls and fantasized. In this performance, located at the intersection of the arts of puppetry and drag, they return to that world to understand what exactly happened, and to see what further happens. The performance is a celebration of Disco life in the closet through the 1980’s. The world of their dolls has manipulated them, as they in turn have manipulated their dolls to cross over the boundaries of gender, reality and art. In an ancient text in India, it says that ‘a puppeteer is a soul in search of a body, and a puppet is a body in search of a soul’.  They may be a ‘has been’ but their dolls/puppets are still drag queens. The question Varun asks however is “whose Drag show is this one? Mine or theirs??”. 

‘Dragged OUT!’ was supported  The Oslo Drag Festival 2024 and Go Figure Internasjonal Figurteater Festival. It was performed at Pyrimiden, SALT in Oslo on 31st May, 2024 and was invited to The Barents Pride in Kirkenes, September 2024.

During 1994-2000 most of my work was documented on formats which are obselete now. I however have a record of my work through hard copieds of The Newspapers in which journalists and art critics reviewd my work.

The following Blog has news paper reviews of my puppet performances 

The following blog has a documentation of my Mask related work.

'Performance in Transit'

an experimental piece with Shaad Qureshi has been a work in progress since 2020. The performance is a documentation of our shifting emotions and sense of self as we attempt to unbelong to spaces 

'Open Art Nursery'

A blog belonging to Varun and Shaad