On the eve of Halloween, Gothics of Hyderabad assembled all together under one roof. The Nritya Forum for Performing Arts, Gachibowli—an upcoming premium living centre with an outlet to promote performance arts—became a hub to embrace the darkness with art. An amalgamation of DARK Drag and dark comedy came together to give a laughter blot to the audience. Hyderabad drag club organized this event called “DRAGOTHARAM” to give an experience of goth culture in drag and comedy.
As people accumulated to celebrate goth, starting from the kids to younger and older—all came dressed up for the event—some in rare costumes and some in comfortable clothes. The event began with a DRAG Performance by Mohini D ’vi. The performance started with a dance number. Mohini, dressed in thematic black and white, wore a mask to give a tranimal look. In the middle of the performance, the drag saw lip-syncs and an interactive performance by the audience. As a statement of art, Mohini deliberately dwelled performance art into drag. Performing on a song called ‘Extraterrestrial’ Mohini importantly brought the perseverance of drag as an art, to be extra than any other art form.
An ocean of laughter by Team of Improv Comedy Hyderabad club followed the evening. The team was led by Jayashree Raj, who brought the flavour of improv comedy. She started with an improv storytelling process by involving the audience; Jayashree bombarded the crowd with glitters and high laughter. Then the trained team of improv comedy stepped in to bring dark humor into the picture. Though often sticking to clean comedy, to compliment sensuality of drag performance, the team explored elegant yet surreal jokes on traffic, work, partnership, and so on. The audience had half an hour of complete laughter while actively participating in the interactive improv comedy.
Post the stand-up, there was a Walk, performed by a few new sets of Drag aspirants from Hyderabad. Mohini led the walk with Alex Parish and Angel following. Asking about what drag means, the youngest drag queen so far, Angel said: “It’s a performance which I love to put up, it gives me space—an extra dose of energy to express myself.”
Speaking about the event, Drag queen Mohini D’vi said, “This was an attempt to celebrate goth or darkness as a theme of the event; this event is for a small-group intimate crowd, who come together and have a great time.” Talking about the current situation of Drag in the city, Patruni added that “Drag is still developing. While it’s taking a huge time in educating people about Drag, we are also fighting with the DRAGPHOBIA within the cultural spaces when trying to curate events.”
Adding to that, he concluded, “I feel really proud and nice to see Nritya Forum for Performing Arts, a home for my artistic presentations, which is an open door for all kinds of art form and is encouraging artists to keep bringing their artistic identity.” The event concluded with a song by Mohini and a vote of thanks to Venkat Raghuru and Boston Living team for all the support. It was one of such events in Hyderabad where Drag and comedy were celebrated with an open heart.