And What Will People Say? · fortyfivedownstairs Melbourne · 9 – 12 July 2026
Book Tickets →Every community has stories
it keeps behind closed doors.
— we open them.
Founded by Kersherka, BCD Theatre tells authentic stories from diverse and marginalised communities — reshaping the narrative of multicultural Australia through immersive performance.
We tell the stories no one talks about.
— that's the line. that's the work.
BCD Theatre is an independent Sydney theatre company operating on Cammeraygal Country. Our work fuses Bharatanatyam — the South Asian classical dance form — with music, lyrical poetry and verbatim storytelling to confront the issues that shape multicultural Australian communities.
We make work for and about the people whose stories are still rare on Australian stages. Domestic violence in South Asian families. Migration and the marriage of paper. The way ancient artistic practices migrate and meet Indigenous land. Dating apps and what the algorithm gets wrong about love.
We work in immersive form because some stories need an audience close enough to feel the weight of them. We work in cultural specificity because that's where the truth lives — not in flattening, not in translating away. And we work directly, because softening these stories has never served the people in them.
Why “Behind Closed Doors”
Every community has stories it keeps behind closed doors — the things families carry in private, the silences that hold a place together, the truths spoken only between trusted people. Our job isn't to break those doors down. It's to be invited in, listen carefully, and bring what we hear to the stage in a form that honours where it came from.
Four commitments.
These aren't values statements written for funders. They're the questions we ask before we say yes to a project, and the things we don't compromise on while we make it.
01
Cultural truth
No flattening, no translating away the texture of where a story comes from. Specificity is what makes a story usable everywhere else.
02
Direct, not sanitised
We don't soften difficult themes for audience comfort. We trust audiences to meet the work, and we trust our communities to recognise their own lives in it.
03
Country first
We make work as migrants and descendants of migrants on unceded Cammeraygal land, and we centre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in everything we do.
04
Beyond the stage
A show is the start of a conversation, not the end. Profits go to community organisations. Our work travels into the rooms where it can change something.
 — About page founder portrait.jpg)
Practice
Over two decades of Bharatanatyam practice. Performed internationally in London, Sri Lanka and India. Family roots in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Strong advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights.
Kersherka Sivakumaran.
— Kersh, to most.
Kersh founded BCD Theatre because the stories she'd been carrying — and the stories she'd been hearing in her community — weren't reaching stages in Australia. So she started making the work herself. As playwright. As director. As producer. As performer.
Her artistic practice is rooted in over two decades of Bharatanatyam, the South Asian classical dance form. Her direction is authentic and depth-focused — she works with movement as a way to find genuine expression, not decorative effect. Her choreography transcends stylistic boundaries, layering feeling and emotion across forms, working with all levels from children to adults.
Outside of theatre, she has a background spanning NFP-sector executive leadership, strategy, data analysis and project management. That second life is part of what makes BCD work: this is theatre run with rigor, made for impact, and held to the same standards as any organisation she's led.
She has performed internationally — in London, Sri Lanka and India — and her family's roots are in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. She is a strong advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights, and that advocacy is woven into everything BCD makes.
“I don't make theatre to entertain. I make it because I'm tired of pretending we don't see what we see.”
From a single performance to a touring company.
Bhoomi · Sacred Music Festival, Sydney
A collaboration with Aboriginal author Bruce Pascoe, exploring how ancient artistic practices migrate into new communities and meet Indigenous land. Choreographer and performer: Kersherka.
Behind Closed Doors · Barangaroo, Burwood, Bankstown
A 60-minute immersive performance exploring how abuse can manifest in South Asian families. Toured across Sydney, May to December. Profits donated to ICSA. Partners included Lendlease, Burwood Council, Correlate Resources and SAARI Collective.
For the Love of Paper · KXT on Broadway
A new full-length work about deportation, the marriage of convenience, and what happens when the bureaucracy of immigration meets two friends who believe in true love. Documented in partnership with Macquarie University Film School.
And What Will People Say? · Sydney Fringe — 2× Award Winner
Returning to the company's founding subject, this time as a fully-realised immersive work. Won two awards at Sydney Fringe Festival 2025.
Melbourne · fortyfivedownstairs · 9–12 July
And What Will People Say? tours to Melbourne for a four-night season at fortyfivedownstairs.
The Algorithm of Us · Sydney Fringe Festival + Lane Cove Pottery Lane Theatre
A new original romantic comedy from BCD Theatre — exploring love, identity and connection in the age of dating apps. Currently in active development; premiering September 2026.
Always was, always will be.
— Aboriginal land.
BCD Theatre acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate, the Cammeraygal people, and pays our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging. As migrants and descendants of migrants, we recognise that we are on unceded and stolen lands.
We commit to honouring and respecting their ongoing connection to Country and to supporting Indigenous-led initiatives for reconciliation and justice. This commitment is woven into the work itself — most directly in Bhoomi, our collaboration with Bruce Pascoe — and it informs every decision we make about whose stories to tell and how.