When trans individuals in Chennai emerge from gender-affirming surgeries, they are often left to recover alone. For many, the difference between isolation and healing was a woman named Dayamma Ramya.
“She used to stay with them, 45 days, one month, two months, until they fully recover,” says Srijith Sundaram, a theatre artiste and director of Kattiyakkari. “Even when someone passes away, she takes responsibility for the funeral rites. Everyone knows Dayamma will take care of everything.”
A revered trans elder and artiste from North Madras, Ramya Thaayamma, better known as Dayamma, spent decades caring for others, often without recognition. “For 20 years, she has been with me like a mother,” says Srijith. “In all my projects, she plays a key role, even if she isn’t in the spotlight.” Now, she is.
Three years after her passing, her legacy takes centre stage at the Dayamma Theatre Festival organised by Kattiyakkari, Trans Community Kitchen, and Alliance Francaise de Madras. The festival, named in her honour, is professionally run, crowd-funded and unapologetically queer. “If she saw what we’re doing now, she’d say, ‘Life should be celebrated like this.’ That’s what she always believed,” Srijith says. For its organisers, the event is both a tribute and a protest. “We’re not just performing. This is a statement. When different forms of art, rights movements, and truths come together, something revolutionary happens,” he adds.
From the learnings
Among those Dayamma mentored is Aruvi, a performer and one of the festival’s coordinators. She says, “When I once interviewed her, she told me she couldn’t read or write, but theatre gave her a space where she was no less than anyone else. She could perform. She belonged.” That sense of belonging defines this festival. “We’re professionals through and through. All of us are technically competent. Organising comes naturally, especially through our work with the Trans Community Kitchen,” says Aruvi.
Twelve performances will be staged by eighteen artistes in four languages. They span monologue, movement, cabaret and more. “It’s not one language or format. Some acts are ten minutes, some twenty. Each one is important. It brings together different aspects of queer experience,” says Srijith.
Creating that platform hasn’t been easy. “There’s no queer theatre school that hands us a curriculum. We’ve had to build it ourselves. And even when we show up prepared, we’re treated like we don’t know what we’re doing,” he says.
At a show in Kerala, the group faced delays and suspicion. “There were technical difficulties in that play. Every time we perform under a queer identity, people act like we’re incompetent,” says Srijith. That is why this space matters.
Anish Anto, one of the festival’s producers, says the event is the first of its kind in Chennai. “There have been queer plays before, sometimes with just one queer character, but never a full festival,” says Anish. Most participants are queer. “We ensure accommodation is safe, inclusive, and dignified. And we believe all labour must be paid. No one should be working unpaid.”
The entire event is funded by the queer community and allies. “They believe in true equality, not just in name but in practice,” he adds.
For Srijith, this is part of a longer journey. He has spent 25 years in theatre, 20 of them as a queer artist. He credits his mentor, A Mangai, for teaching him what inclusive space can look like. “That’s what I learn from her, how to build space.”
At a time when political and queer art faces censorship, that visibility feels urgent. “In queer spaces, we don’t hold back,” Srijith says. “They say, ‘You can’t talk like that, you have to behave.’ But patriarchy has always tried to silence us. Queer theatre speaks plainly and openly. That’s why festivals like Dayamma’s are crucial.”
DAYAMMA THEATRE FESTIVAL
Date: Friday, June 20
Time: 5pm to 9pm (Tribute installation from 4pm)
Venue: Alliance Française de Madras
(The rehearsal space partner for Dayamma Theatre Festival is Arangam Art Space)
Entry: Free and open to all
For more information, visit @kattiyakkari on Instagram.