And What Will People Say? · fortyfivedownstairs Melbourne · 9 – 12 July 2026
Book Tickets →Now Booking · Melbourne 2026
And What Will
People Say?
— what happens when silence is survival, but speaking out is freedom?
An immersive fusion of Indian dance, music and poetry confronting domestic violence in South Asian families. Sydney Fringe Festival 2025 award winner — including Best in Spoken Word — now touring to Melbourne for a four-night season at fortyfivedownstairs.
A story told in plain sight.
And What Will People Say? is an immersive theatre work that confronts domestic violence within South Asian families. It fuses Bharatanatyam, original music and lyrical poetry into a single seventy-five-minute performance that holds space for the things rarely said out loud — and the people who carry them.
The work is a return and an evolution. It grew out of Behind Closed Doors, BCD Theatre's 2022 community work that toured Barangaroo, Burwood and Bankstown across that year — performed in venues sized for the audiences who needed it most. The questions raised then about cultural stigma, generational silence and the cost of survival demanded a fuller staging. And What Will People Say? is that staging.
At the centre of the work is a single question: what happens when silence is survival — but speaking out is freedom? The piece doesn't answer it neatly. It puts audiences inside the room with the question. The dance form, the music, the poetry — all serve to keep the truth where it belongs: with the people who lived it.
Presented at Sydney Fringe Festival, 17–21 September 2025. Won two awards at Sydney Fringe 2025, including Best in Spoken Word. Now touring to fortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne for four nights, 9–12 July 2026.
Lineage: Profits from the original 2022 Behind Closed Doors tour were donated to ICSA (Indian Crisis & Support Agency). The Lendlease (premiere), Burwood Council, Correlate Resources and SAARI Collective partnerships made that community season possible. This work carries them forward.
- Venuefortyfivedownstairs
45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC - Dates9 – 12 July 2026 · 4 performances
- Duration~75 minutes, no interval
- Tickets$35 – $55 (TBC)
Concessions available - DirectorKersherka
- ProducerKersherka
- FormBharatanatyam, music, lyrical poetry, immersive theatre
- Awards2× Sydney Fringe 2025
incl. Best in Spoken Word - First staged asBehind Closed Doors · Sydney 2022
- ContentThemes of domestic violence and family abuse
- AccessWheelchair access, companion-card seats
See the work.
Critics on the work.
“The narratives themselves are superbly written, replete with detail that makes us see the moment and feel the pain.”
Paul Gilchrist · Theatre Red
“A work of profound courage and craft — Bharatanatyam, spoken word and song fused into a single, unflinching voice. The silence in the room afterwards is as much a part of the work as anything spoken on stage.”
Bacchus at the Theatre · September 2025
“A performance that has a genuine capacity to influence change within South Asian communities and public debate more broadly.”
Khushaal Vyas · SAARI Collective
Help us take this story
to Melbourne.
— every contribution counts.
And What Will People Say? has won awards, sold out seasons, and changed conversations about domestic violence in South Asian communities. Now we're taking it to Melbourne — and we need your support to make it happen.
BCD Theatre is a registered project on the Australian Cultural Fund. Donations are tax deductible.
Donate via Australian Cultural Fund →Tax-deductible donations supported by the Australian Cultural Fund
From the stage.
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