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Second Trimester
by Krishna Istha & Geetha Shankar. Directed by Milli Bhatia
This groundbreaking performance offers a rare opportunity to contribute to and witness queer family-making.
Four years ago, Krishna told his mum he was trying to get pregnant and she freaked out. Like, massively freaked out. Krishna didn’t know why. It’s rare for a fight between them to end in tears. But this one did. . . and for good reason.
Love triangles. Missing people. A pregnant son. In Second Trimester, trans performance artist Krishna Istha and his mother, Geetha Shankar, confront pregnancy, loss, gender, and the weight of inherited memories. Using cameras, projections and a bespoke coded interface built for the show, Geetha and Krishna make live choices each night together, constructing a cinematic, Bollywood-inspired epic family saga.
One stage. Two generations. Endless drama. Based on a true story, Second Trimester asks: how well can you ever really know your parents?
The anticipated second show in a trilogy of work, following the critically acclaimed First Trimester.
‘Addictive’ – What’s on Stage ★★★★★
‘An antidote of the age’ – Irish Times ★★★★
A Making Waves Major Commission by Battersea Arts Centre. Made possible with funding by Arts Council England and Cockayne 10th Anniversary Grants for the Arts. Additionally Commissioned by Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, Cambridge Junction, The Lowry, Marlborough Productions, SICK! Festival, Unlimited.
CREDITS:
Lead Artist, Co-Creator & Performer: Krishna Istha
Co-Creator & Performer: Geetha Shankar
Director: Milli Bhatia
Creative Producer: Ruby Glaskin
Creative Coder: Suzanna Hurst
Video Designer: idontloveyouanymore – Anna West & Davi Callanan
Dramaturg: Paula Varjack
Set & Costume Designer: Ting – Huan 挺歡 Christine Urquhart
Lighting Designer: Joshua Gadsby
Sound Designer: Joe Jackson
Sound Designer & Composition: XANA
Theme Composition: Holly Khan
Movement Director: Jennifer Jackson
Associate Movement Director: Gabriella Schmidt
Production Manager: Benji Huntrods
Technical Stage Manager: Florian Lim
Design Associate: Moa Johansson
Narrator: Shivam Gupta
Script Dramaturg: Saraid de Silva
Outside Eye: Emma McManus
Wellbeing Support: Sabah Choudrey
Artist Access Support: Lottie Vallis
Pregnancy Support: Josefeen Foxten
Hair & Make Up Support: Rachel Porter
Voice Coach: Gurkiran Kaur
BSL Support: Deepa Shastri
PR Associate: Joy Parkinson
Marketing & Branding Creative Director: Emily Drake
Graphics & Brand Design: Rob Wallace, Josh Quinton, Logan Rea
Audience Connectors: Gayithiri Kamalakan & Jamie Locke
Senior Producer for BAC: Oscar Owen
First Trimester was nominated for an Off West End Award (OFFIES 2024), under the category IDEA PRODUCTION: Experimental Theatre, and won Judge’s Choice Award at Dublin Fringe Festival.
Commissioned by Roundhouse, Battersea Arts Centre and Marlborough Productions.
Supported by Arts Council England.
Krishna Istha is a London-based performance artist, comedian, theatre maker, and screenwriter. They create socially conscious, form-pushing works about taboo or underrepresented experiences of gender, race and sexual politics.
Currently, they are writing on Netflix’s ‘Sex Education’ (Season 4) and are a recipient of the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund. More recently, they were a Barbican Centre Open Lab artist (2021-22) and an Arts Admin Bursary Artist (2020-21).
They were one of two shortlisted writers for the Sky Arts & Royal Society of Literature Writers Awards under screenwriting (2022) and placed Runner-Up on Screenshot (2021), a competition for comedy writer-performers hosted by Sister Pictures and South of the River Pictures, and judged by Olivia Coleman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lolly Adefope & Rosie Jones.
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