Major Nom with Shu1o1O, Ngar galay (Little Fish), Larmashee

The Burmese director and junta critic Zarganar wrote the play Beggars’ National Convention, mocking the Burma Socialist Programme Party in 1987 in the lead up to elections. After one of the performances, the actors were arrested as the curtains closed.

For the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Major Nom, a key figure in the Civil Disobedience Movement after Myanmar’s 2021 coup, will restage the formerly male-cast piece as an Anyeint play with queer and female-identifying performers in drag.

Major Nom, *1990 in Yangon, Myanmar. Places of belonging: Yangon.