In 2007 when Nicholas Brown moved to Mumbai from Sydney, he found himself toggling between two worlds, each with its distinct environment. Brown, with his Anglo-Indian heritage—his father hails from the popular hill station of Ooty in Tamil Nadu and mother from the eastern city of Kolkata—was no stranger to Indian culture, but he was enamoured by the differences in masculinity in the eastern and the western worlds.

For someone born and brought up in Australia, it was “a little startling” to see men holding hands, which in the western world would be construed as a queer or gay behaviour. Brown would later view it as an expression of a sweet camaraderie. “It is just very different and interesting to the rest of the world,” he says.

He couldn’t help wondering though why masculinity was so different in India. “I was compelled to write about it,” says Brown, who then began looking into other religions and ideologies and discovering similarities between Indian mythology, ancient Greek mythology, Hinduism and even modern witchcraft.

It was fascinating for Brown who found a lot of queerness in many of the artworks dating back to the precolonial British days. “I wonder how much of the modern Indian psyche is a hangover from the colonial days and what it would have been like if India was not colonised and if sex wouldn’t be frowned upon because it’s no secret that you have to exercise discretion in India with all that moral policing,” he says.

While this kind of virtuous morality is a bit hypocritical coming from a country that gave Kamasutra and all the beautiful temples to the world, Brown found the paradox interesting and wanted to write about it all. “It became clear to me that I had to create a magi(k)cal story about a brown man finding himself through sex, spirituality and mythology.”

At the same, while living in India, Brown found it intriguing that so many Indians wanted to be American. When he moved to Los Angeles, he found it curious that so many people were in touch with Indian culture and yoga. “More people said ‘namaste’ to me in Los Angeles than they ever did in Mumbai.”

In 2009, Brown started writing his story after reading many books by queer Indian mythologist Devdutt Pattnaik and essays by the American Indologist Wendy Doniger, which led to another question in his mind: Should myth be for everyone or just for the people from its country of origin?

The question was heightened by his experience in Bollywood—playing a villain both in Shilpa Shetty’s musical Miss Bollywood (2007) and the movie Kites (2010), directed by Anurag Basu and produced by Rakesh Roshan. “I became quite obsessed with the violent, demonic and magical world of Indian mythology. And in the process, I became intrigued by the vast differences between western and eastern masculinity; specifically, the fluidity of gender in Indian myths,” he says.

Fortunately for Brown, it was his destiny that Declan Greene, theatre-maker, director, playwright, screenwriter and dramaturg, was brave enough to see his vision and develop the script with him. Thus was born Sex Magick, which will be making its world premiere as part of WorldPride at Griffin Theatre Company’s SBW Stables Theatre from today.

As suggested by the title, sex plays a big part in this story, says Brown. “But it’s important to note that the sexual aspects of this play haven’t been created for sensationalism. They’re tied to something deeper, something spiritual, something healing and life affirming. Rather than seeing these moments as smutty, my hope is that audiences will find them incredibly moving, and beautiful.”

Brown has been writing since 2005. His first play was Lighten Up in 2016 about skin bleach in India, and Sex Magick is his second play.

Asked how he finds taking on a subject such as queerness that causes conversations especially among the South Asian diaspora, Brown admits, “It is challenging.”

He adds, “I was terrified when I first started writing but I feel as an artist it’s our job to be really brave and to question. I am leaning into my fear, and I am very brave about it, and it is really an important subject.

“Homosexuality was only legalised in 2018 in India and families are still afraid to talk about it, there is still a lot of discrimination that queer, gay and trans people experience in India and I would love for this to help in a way to start a conversation to normalise it for a queer Indian story to be seen on a main stage and for this to be commercial rather than something that’s underground. People, no matter what their sexuality or gender, deserves equal rights.”

Brown is a revered playwright, songwriter, singer and actor and also a strong advocate for diversity on Australian television. He believes Kites was the peak in his Bollywood career but since then has appeared on Home and Away, The Cooks, Underbelly, Packed to the Rafters and Playschool.

For diversity on Australian media and television, he believes we need more people of colours across the industry for that systemic change to happen. “Until then there will be just faces that will be seen and that is not enough.”

(Sex Magick is making its world premiere as part of WorldPride at Griffin Theatre Company’s SBW Stables Theatre from 17 Feb to 25 March. For tickets, click here)

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In 2007 when Nicholas Brown moved to Mumbai from Sydney, he found himself toggling btwn 2 worlds with distinct environments. Brown, wt his Anglo-Indian heritage was enamoured by the differences in masculinity in the eastern & western worlds. #TheIndianSunhttps://t.co/63zEHBo78a

— The Indian Sun (@The_Indian_Sun) February 16, 2023

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