{"id":114107,"date":"2025-05-07T13:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T17:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=114107"},"modified":"2025-05-07T14:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:00:02","slug":"interview-multidisciplinary-artist-srutika-sabu-talks-neptunes-fish-premiering-paprika-festival-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/05\/07\/interview-multidisciplinary-artist-srutika-sabu-talks-neptunes-fish-premiering-paprika-festival-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Multidisciplinary Artist Srutika Sabu Talks About Neptune\u2019s With a Fish, Premiering At Paprika Festival 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Multidisciplinary
Srutika Sabu as Santosh (Photo: PRAJJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Multidisciplinary artist Srutika Sabu\u2019s new work Neptune\u2019s With a Fish will premiere as part of Paprika Festival on May 14 and 17, 2025 at Native Earth\u2019s Aki Studio in Toronto.<\/p>\n

The show will be on stage in time for Asian Heritage Month, appropriately enough, since it deals with the toll that points based immigration system takes through generations, along with the myth of the Asian model minority.<\/p>\n

The Paprika Festival is youth-led, and offers a professional platform, mentorships, paid opportunities and more to emerging artists and arts administrators.<\/p>\n

We talked to doctor turned clown Srutika Sabu about Neptune\u2019s With a Fish and more.<\/p>\n

Srutika Sabu, doctor turned clown<\/h2>\n

Malayali-Canadian Srutika Sabu began by studying medicine, but took a detour into clowning after an existential crisis, and became a multidisciplinary artist.<\/p>\n

She was born in North India to parents from South India, and moved to Brampton, Ontario at age seven, where the family stayed until she was about 15. The family subsequently moved to New Jersey. After obtaining an undergraduate degree in biotechnology and transnational feminism at Rutgers University, she entered medical school in New York City.<\/p>\n

But then… Srutika came to Toronto, and began studying clowning.<\/p>\n

Training at Sweet Action Theatre, she learned how to reveal her drag king persona, Santosh Santosh \u2014 aka Tosh \u2014 a character who starred in her 2024 Toronto Fringe show 1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go, directed by Ken Hall (The Umbrella Academy). That show will be remounted at Upintheair Theatre\u2019s rEvolver Festival from May 30-31 in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Srutika has performed at Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, Montreal Sketchfest, and WTFestival, and she is the winner of the 2025 Mahendra Joshi Playwriting Competition.<\/p>\n

For 2025, she is part of Paprika Festival\u2019s Creative Producers Unit, as well as Buddies in Bad Times’ Emerging Creators Unit, Theatre Gargantua\u2019s Artist Roundtable, and Nightwood Theatre\u2019s Shadow Residency in Fundraising.<\/p>\n

Neptune\u2019s With a Fish<\/h3>\n

The show\u2019s premise is autobiographical \u2014 at least in part. Chandra is a med school grad who has been banished to a magical version of Toronto. Dreams of her promising future collapse as she\u2019s forced to turn to an uncertain alliance with a talking egg who happens to be annoying to the extreme.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a musical comedy fuelled by clown energy, a sense of the absurd, and a realistically emotional basis in the myths of South Asian exceptionalism, and much more.<\/p>\n

Srutika Sabu is responsible for the book, animation, music and lyrics for the show. She performs as Chandra, with Amrutha Krishnan as the Egg.<\/p>\n

\"Multidisciplinary
Multidisciplinary artist Srutika Sabu (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Srutika Sabu: The Interview<\/h3>\n

\u201cI kind of grew up in different places,\u201d Sabu says. She explains that her parents had decided to move to New Jersey from Brampton during the financial crisis of 2008.<\/p>\n

After beginning her studies, she says she had a \u201ccrisis of intention\u201d. Initially, she thought she\u2019d take a year out of med school to deal with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat meant coming back to Toronto.\u201d As she points out, her visa only allowed her to study in the US, but in any case, she anticipated that after a year or so, she\u2019d be back to med school.<\/p>\n

Then, the COVID pandemic hit, and, along the way, her desire to study medicine waned. \u201cI had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she\u2019d opted for science and medicine when it came to her studies, her heart had always been in the arts. She wanted to lead a more creative life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never gave myself permission to do that,\u201d she says. \u201cI was always an artsy kid, but what I didn\u2019t expect was to be a late bloomer theatre kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabu says she stumbled on acting classes in passing, and discovered the art of theatrical clowning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like what is this?\u201d she recalls. It was 2023. \u201cI took my first clown class. I don\u2019t know what kept me doing it.\u201d Clowning incorporated many aspects that made her uncomfortable at first, like looking people in the eye, and showing vulnerability. \u201cIt was a true trial by fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when she came up with drag king Santosh Santosh, and her first show. She got a last minute spot at the Toronto Fringe, and put together a show in about three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really truly a collaborative effort between three unemployed people,\u201d she says. \u201cI realized, I am a performer and clown now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, she\u2019s branched into many different aspects of production and staging. That journey forms the basis for Neptune\u2019s With a Fish.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] a magical, musical retelling of the past three years,\u201d she says, \u201ca very winding journey,\u201d she adds. \u201cMy mom tears her hair out everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Stage<\/h3>\n

The show is directed by Gordon Neil (Sweet Action Theatre), with Amrutha Krishnan (Mahjong Mafia Comedy).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all met in a clown class,\u201d Srutika recalls. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful sort of incubator space. The director of this piece is actually one of the clown teachers,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt\u2019s like the theatre school I never had. I\u2019ve using the mentors that I have from these spaces. It\u2019s such a joyous process to work with all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She calls it an all hands on deck approach. \u201cWe\u2019re all very new at this. We\u2019re not traditional theatre kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

She enjoys the collaborative aspects of theatre making. \u201cThat\u2019s what I love about theatre art making. Clown for me is very liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The immigration system and the fallout from it underpins the comedy, music, and absurd aspects of the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting. I\u2019m like the product of two immigration systems,\u201d Srutika notes. She became a Canadian citizen after immigrating to Brampton, but also lived in the US for a decade as a foreign citizen.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven my ability to stay in the US was dependent on continuing the [medical] residency,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Her parents went through the points-based immigration system in both countries. \u201cIt was predicated on the fact that both of them studied in engineering,\u201d she says. It created a difficult situation where they had to compensate for the limitations of their relatively weaker passports. \u201cMy sister and I, we wouldn\u2019t have that privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother\u2019s anxiety about her occupation, and quitting med school in particular, stemmed from the fact that everything that led to their North American lifestyle hinged on their own occupations. Their sacrifices led to the situation where their own children had more choices than they did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s real trauma that they have,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m always aware of, how can I make it more sustainable, not just for me, but for other people,\u201d she adds. \u201cMaking art shouldn\u2019t be just for the privileged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Srutika says she\u2019s not immune from her parents\u2019 fears. \u201cI do get anxious about \u2014 what am I doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

She says that many people have approached her after a show to thank her for what she\u2019s doing and saying publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use those stories to talk about a lot of that generational stuff,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like certain stories are more universal than we think.\u201d<\/p>\n