Living Smile Vidya

Introducing Living Smile Vidya

Living Smile Vidya

In the frame of SCH (Sélection suisse en Avignon)

Living Smile Vidya is a heroine: the protagonist of the story of a life she has reinvented. Assigned male at birth in southern India, born among the marginalized Dalit caste, here she is, a few decades later, a trans activist on European stages, following a path strewn with hardship and courage. A real character, a living fictional figure, her presence on stage is at once generous, funny and bold: she unfolds the story of an intimate and political history while constantly addressing the audience. She sings, she dances, she challenges, she plays with her body, with costumes, with images and space, in a kind of freewheeling musical. Through this performance, she also brings forth the voices of those who, like her, cross borders and seek refuge elsewhere in order to lead a dignified existence. Living Smile, in the strongest sense of the word, is the name she proudly bears and has rightfully earned!

In the frame of SCH (Sélection suisse en Avignon)

In this show imbued with biting realism and delicate irony, Living Smile Vidya questions our relationship with the many facets of otherness. Cristina Galbiati, Swiss Cultural Award jury member

Living Smile Vidya - Stage director

Living Smile Vidya is an actress, clown and author. Her autobiography, I am Vidya, was adapted into a film and brought her international fame. In 2013, she was awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust Prize for her excellent theatre work, and then she received a grant to study in the International School of Performing Arts in London. In 2014, she founded the trans theatre collective Panmai Theatre in Chennai; their pieces have toured in India and have been performed abroad as well. In 2018, she fled India and moved to Switzerland because of her political activism and the many death threats she was receiving. Meanwhile, she performed in the play EF_FEMININITY by Swiss artists Marcel Schwald and Chris Leuenberger: the piece was notably presented in 2019 as part of the Sélection suisse en Avignon program. She also acted in Lisa Gerig’s documentary L’audition (2023) which received a Swiss Film award. Finally, the show Introducing Living Smile Vidya was awarded the Prix suisse des arts de la scène in 2024.

Distribution

Artistic Direction, Performance Living Smile Vidya
Mentoring Marcel Schwald
Artistic Mentoring Beatrice Fleischlin
Sound, Video design, animation Moritz Flachsmann
Technical management, Lighting Thomas Kohler
Costumes Diana Ammann
Sound Silvan Koch
Voice (video) Suzì Feliz Das Neves
Subtitles Anton Kuzema