Does Anyone Else Smell Curry?

Aim: Does Anyone Else Smell Curry? is a solo show, performed and created by Kiren Virdee, which explores the South Asian experience in the UK.

Does Anyone Else Smell Curry? is a solo show, performed and created by Kiren Virdee through writing, devising, and editing hours of recorded interviews and sound. Beginning in 2023 as an attempt to explore and open conversations within the South Asian community, the show was later developed following the far-right riots in 2024, as Kiren carried out further interviews to reflect recent events. Through a variety of South Asian voices across the UK, the show asks: How do we see ourselves? How do others see us? Are we not more than curry?!

Kiren Virdee is a versatile, unique theatre-maker working in performance, choreography, and facilitation, in professional and community contexts. Her work aims to explore the complexities and intersectionality of identity, creating high quality art which widens engagement. She trained at Trinity Laban and Central, and has worked with organisations such as The Place, Siobhan Davies, and Omnibus Theatre. Recent performance credits include Feel Me, The Paper Birds. Recent movement direction credits include Wish You Weren’t Here, Theatre Centre.

About the Show...

Does anyone else smell curry? 

It was said by a friend. I said nothing. Worse. I laughed. Why did I laugh?

Meet Kiren. British. South Asian. Indian? Punjabi? Sikh? What does any of that really mean? Through a combination of movement, spoken word, recorded interviews, and verbatim, the show offers an insight into the lives, histories, and experiences of South Asians in the UK. Seeking comedy, tragedy, and, above all, connection. 

This piece was first developed for a scratch night at the Omnibus Theatre and has since been performed at The Bread and Roses Theatre and Bexley Grammar School, for GCSE and A-level students. It been described by audiences as “a reclamation of pain”, “raw”, “beautiful”, and: “relevant, mesmerizing - a beautiful piece of physical theatre merging dance, movement, media, and verbatim words. Deserves a wider audience and a bright future”.

The piece addresses ideals of beauty, experiences of racism, our relationship to culture across multiple generations, and mental health. We believe this piece is important in encouraging conversations and openness about our lives and experiences as South Asians in the UK, and in showing representation of this onstage. It has been received very well by audience both South Asian and not, of a wide mixture of ages. 

The show has been selected for Keep it Fringe, making the project possible, and we are looking for funds to cover the rest of the accommodation, design, travel and transport, and marketing costs (posters, leaflets, any advertising we can manage!) If we raise enough funds, we will be taking the show to a London theatre following our Fringe run, to continue widening our reach and eventually aim for tour to different locations of the UK!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 19th August 2025 at 12:11pm