Lane Cove’s population of talent has been recognised through a partnership with Sydney’s Fringe Festival, shining a spotlight on local indie artists like Kersh Sivakumaran.
The Fringe Festival, kicking off this Friday 5 September 2025, is a multi-genre performance arts extravaganza hosting shows around Sydney. This year, the force of culture flair is teaming up with Lane Cove, making use of the suburb’s theatre spaces and local talent during the Lane Cove Festival.
Kersh is the founder of Behind Closed Doors Theatre (BCD Theatre), a performance organisation dedicated to sharing the stories of diverse and marginalised communities in Australia.
Kirsh explained her production was accepted as part of Sydney Fringe; however, the opportunity to host in Lane Cove was a result of happenstance.
“I had my first festival committee meeting as part of the Council’s initiative to include the community in everyday decision making. And in that meeting, they had talked about how they wanted to host Sydney Fringe and were looking for some shows, and ideally local shows. Honestly, it felt like stars aligned,” Kersh told ITC outside the Pottery Lane Performance Space.
Kersh will be showcasing And What Will People Say?, a 60-minute immersive experience sharing the lesser-heard story of women staying for the sake of their children in cases of domestic violence. The performance will explore the topic while combining the artist’s speciality in Indian classical dance, music and spoken word.
Her inspiration for the show came from a search for answers after volunteering in the domestic violence sector and seeing a lack of support services for women. “It’s a very grey area that’s uncomfortable and not a solution that we’re used to.”
The show was created in consultation with the community, psychologists, counsellors and social workers to ensure the narrative is intentional in how it shares and talks about the sensitive issues within the story.
BCD Theatre has a focus on casting light on unspoken topics surrounding South Asian people within communities; the goal is to one day assimilate these stories within Australian culture.
“The vision of the theatre company is to shape a nation where every story belongs. It’s a theatre that aspires for multicultural and diverse stories to just become part of the Australian narrative; to not even need those labels anymore, because it’s part of the mainstream. It’s normalised,” Kersh said.
A Woman Of Many Hats
It’s no surprise that Kersh immersed herself in the arts from a young age. The theatre company owner has worked as a dance educator and performed Bharathanatyam (Indian classical dance) in venues all around Sydney.
It may be more surprising to learn that the theatre company is not her main gig; she, in fact, spends her day job interpreting data analytics as the head of growth and audience acquisition at publisher Mamamia.
Although storytelling and number interpretation may seem like they’re from different worlds, Kersh believes her multi-skill set to be integral in her creative process.
“People always say that must really stretch your brain – you’ve got this analytical side and then the creative side. I always say analytics is one of the most creative things that I do. Whenever you’re dealing with data, you need to ask it curious questions. You need to wonder why. It’s like five ‘whys’ all the time. You can take an analysis in absolutely any direction,” she shared.
“So I actually find the two worlds work really well together, more than anything else.”
How to Buy Tickets and Support a Lane Cove Local
If you’d like to catch ‘And What Will People Say?’, it will showcase at Pottery Lane Performance Space from 17–21 September (performance times below)
Purchase your tickets at the link.
Performance Times
Wed 17 Sep 7:00 PM
Thu 18 Sep 7:00 PM
Fri 19 Sep 7:00 PM
Sat 20 Sep 5:00 PM
Sun 21 Sep 3:00 PM
Content Note: This production contains references to domestic violence.
