Sex Magick’s Nick Says, “I Hope My Audiences Question Their Sexuality And Gender”
FEATURED: Nick Brown | Instagram
GRIFFIN THEATRE | For Sex Magick tickets here.
Nick Brown has a lot going on! His WorldPride show Sex Magick, the new ABC TV drama In Our Blood and a new single Up And Coming. Matthew Myers catches up with Nick and discusses his projects, the different faces of masculinity and exploring sexuality and gender through art.
DNA: What is Sex Magick all about?
Nick Brown: It’s an erotic psychosexual comedy about an Aussie Indian guy needing to shed his conditioning. He takes an epic journey from Sydney to Keralaand back, discovering a lot about himself including his sexuality and queer father who was a kathakali dancer. He returns home a changed man who’ll hopefully reach queer utopia.
What inspired you to write it?
I was living in India and became intrigued by the differences in masculinity between the Eastern and Western worlds. I wanted to write a story about masculinity over there compared to what I believe to be toxic masculinity in Australia. Indian men walk around the street holding hands, which is beautiful. If Aussie men did that, everyone would assume they were gay. Strangely amid all that Bollywood madness, confusion and fear, I found solace in Indian mythology and Hinduism. Indian mythology is quite queer. It was very fluid with a lot of the gods changing gender and they all had sex with each other. So, I’ve written a mythological queer coming-out story.
It sounds like you’ve been on quite the journey yourself.
When I lived in Mumbai, India I worked in Bollywood for quite a few years playing masculine villains and I’d only just come to terms with my sexuality before moving there. It was quite a journey as I came out late at 25 and moved to India two years later where it was illegal to be gay. Homosexuality was only legalised in 2018. It was strange coming to terms with my sexuality to then live in a country where I worried about getting arrested. I had some incredible work in a blockbuster action film and was part of the media attention in a big Bollywood storm. But I was terrified people would discover I was gay. I had an opportunity to marry quite a few women in Bollywood who said they’d catapult me to stardom, and I chose to walk away from it all and be true to myself.
Have there been any challenges?
I wrote Sex Magick ten years ago as a film but trying to get producers to make an erotic Indian story was difficult. I don’t think there’s been anything like it on the stage, so getting theatre companies to understand the vision was difficult. Griffin Theatre and its artistic director Declan Greene were brave enough to take it on. It’s quite a radical and electrifying show. It’s not a gay story but a queer story about the plus sign and what it represents. Gender and sexuality are limitless!
Are you pleased with your cast?
We took time with the casting and the actors rose to the occasion. We wanted to make it culturally appropriate and were quite specific in our search. Our leading guy needed to be half Indian and half Aussie and I couldn’t believe we found the wonderful Raj Labade, fresh from WAAPA. He even looked like me and has similar mannerisms. Everyone said, “Oh my god! That is a young you!” Kate Văn-Davies, Blazey Best, Stephen Madsen and Mansoor Noor are all wonderful and Veshnu Narayanasamy is an incredible South Indian classically trained dancer. Everyone involved has worked so hard and is so brave because it’s a radical show. Sex Magick is not your typical Shakespearean play!
How has the reaction been during WorldPride?
There’s been a lot of gasping! And cheering. There’s a warning beforehand explaining the nudity, sex and drugs. Basically, every warning you could imagine! The audience has been enthusiastic and I’m so glad that the message has been understood. I am scared about how Indian audiences will react because this is a play for the queer community. But it’s also for the Indian community and they tend to be more conservative.
What do you hope audiences will take away from seeing Sex Magick?
My main hope is for audiences to question their sexuality and gender. If straight people see the play, I’d like them to walk away thinking, “Oh, my goodness, am I straight? Why do I think I’m straight? Was I programmed to be straight? What is it to be queer? I think I might be gay!”
Tell us about your role in In Our Blood.
I play a gay doctor on the frontline called Paul. He has a clinic off Oxford Street and treats a lot of AIDS patients. Paul is a kind-hearted no bullshit kind of guy and he makes it his business to try and figure out what is causing so many gay men to get sick. His journey is a challenging one because despite being very officious about testing his patients for HIV/AIDS, he’s afraid to test himself as he’s a promiscuous man. For my research, I spoke to several nurses from that time and read the most incredible book by David Bradford called Tell Me I’m OK. David is a gay sexual health doctor who, like Paul, worked tirelessly throughout the AIDS epidemic, helping gay men. In Our Blood is a beautiful production and I’m proud to be a part of it.
For more information about Sex Magick visit here.
In Our Blood screens on ABC TV and ABC iview
See Nick’s new single Up And Coming.
