Beyond Binary, brilliantly busted the myth and misunderstandings about transgenders and gave us a different view of their world. The audience was sucked into the confusion, turmoil, trauma and stress of these unfortunate people
The delicate handling of the scenes brought out the emotions of the affected people without crossing the limits and at the same time drawing the empathy of the audience.
The fluid movements of the actors and their facial expressions brought out the pain and was well synchronized to perfectly blend with the mood and music. The director’s interaction at the beginning and at the end brought us into a merged thought of accepting this deviation in creation as a normal phenomenon.
The actors from different cultures have enacted a global issue with a rare sensitivity.
Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan
Detailed perfection
Expectations were a lot and Beyond Binary delivered it, thanks to director Yosup Bae whose hard work could be seen by the perfection achieved in details. One thing the Inko Centre will have to worry about is plagiarism, with all the other shows expected to copy the type of delivery presented by the group. It was a perfect blend of an Indo-Korean collaboration. Moving away from the present day trend of hysterical-standup comedy type, Beyond Binary succeeded in imprinting a serious thought to think about. The play dealt with the type of society we live in, how the society responds to certain aspects, its beliefs and the changes if necessary.
The actors were successful in developing the right kind of mood required to sit through the show and were apt in delivering dialogues, rendering emotions and the right amount of satire. Except for a bit here and there for a keen eyed viewer, the play was absolutely splendid. The play touches upon the role that sexual minorities play in the society and tries to blur the line distinguishing between men and women while provoking and reminding us of our culture.
Putting it simply, without giving away the story, Beyond Binary is about the third gender and about people with certain sexual orientations jostling through our society while facing many a hurdles just like the rest of us. It imbibes the right kind of vision we are yet to develop and does all this in the most memorable way possible while putting the audience at ease with their splendor. The best part of Beyond Binary is that, it does not come to a dead end conclusion but leaves the judgment to the viewers’ conscience.
M. P. Rajesh Ponnappa
Koramangala
Beyond Binary, a view from below
In a world where people expect flexibility with work times, relationships, and choices across shapes and sizes of phones and computers, society can still be very obdurate with regard to recognizing the continuum across genders. Beyond Binary, Yosup Bae’s Indo-Korean production that integrates Indian mythology and icons, societal values and personal episodes in self-discovery, is an energetic effort towards exploring the boundaries of what could be and what is. Stories of misadventure and glee connect with science and philosophy of dubious value on a canvas of minimalist props and costumes. They deliver a thought-provoking if uneven exploration of the blurred lines between the genders, between stakeholders and actors, and even between the director and the players. Music flows from atop the stage that houses closets to switch between identities, and it complements the movements below, even if it is a little loud at times. Just stopping short of being a spectacle, this play unfolds the deepest torments of those caught in between, with balance and great sensitivity.
Are these players or victims, dancing out a blended choreograph of the ancient with the present? Will the past always hang heavily on our lives to choke primal desires? An exploration of this nature is expected to educate, entertain and express new values. It succeeds well with the latter two, even as the first stays with us through unanswered queries in our minds.
Beyond Binary was viewed at Chowdiah Hall, Bangalore on August 15, 2014
R. Suresh
J.P. Nagar, 3rd Phase
Thinking Beyond Binary
A perfectly crafted implant powerful enough to explode our psyche and make us stretch ourselves think "Beyond Binary". It reminds us all of a conveniently forgotten reality that exists in our society. I am sure, it would have welled up the eyes of each and every audience, when the performers have gestured the agony, depression,desperation and sense of abandonment of the people,we call as sexual minorities go through. More than just a visual treat, it successfully educated us about the scientific facts which maketh a man,a man and a woman, a woman. The persuasion put forward by the play has moved the hearts of the audience and make them consider all human beings equally without any SEXUS. The director has shown an inimitable craftsmanship in this making, which otherwise had all the possibilities of turning out to be a cliche. Kudos to the entire crew, who themselves led by example and show everyone how better the world would be, if we embrace the diversity around us.
Kishor V.P.
Header
“Are you a Man or a Woman?” asks the bespectacled, soft spoken Korean Director Yosup Bae, of a Man randomly chosen in the audience, thus reaching out to in a provocative Shakespearean manner and setting the tone for a stark, deliberate, passionate, tender, brutal and even self- deprecatory inquiry into sexual identities. About 9 actors, both Korean and Indian espouse different views on sexuality which is explored through very real life situations; a young Korean homosexual male who enlists in the army; the young Indian IT executive at Accenture who vociferously argues to be treated normally; the Korean woman who pampered by her Mother when she has her first period and who then is mired in dark desperation when she doesn’t menstruate further; the young Tamilian boy rejected by his Mother when he becomes a woman but still yearns for her love…A documented, dance narrative, with live Musicians, Beyond Binary, seeks to share the naked truth of their angst.
Symbolically, the play starts with the actors, their backs to the audience, boxed in and silhouetted by a dull strobe, that shows them undressing and dressing, as they tell their stories, their shadow lives of solitude, rejection, pain and stigma. Free dance becomes paradoxically the medium to demonstrate the wretched, humiliated and stifled lives, those with different sexual orientations suffer. Comic relief in an otherwise sombre play is provided by the enactment of scholarly and obtuse definitions of sexuality.
From multiple lives, the play closes in on the real story of Gladys, a Transgender from Thanjavur, who is repudiated by a warm and nurturing family when her sexual orientations becomes known. Taken back by the family but ordered to lead a closeted life, Gladys is distraught by society’s rejection of her own family. Beyond Binary pleads for a more accepting view of sexual identity and difference. The play symbolically ends with the actors undressing and dressing with the lights on having come to terms as it were with themselves.
Shobha Naidu
