Beneath the Music is an elegant and moving story of familial redemption from rising Perth theatre star Jay Emmanuel.

The narrative revolves around Indian expatriate Keshav (played by Ramith Ramesh), blissfully settling in with the man who calls him “husband”, Aman (Tyrone Earl Lraé Robinson) in Australia. But Keshav’s mother considers his life sinful, and summons him back to help with the preparations for the marriage of Keshav’s brother Bala and close family friend Reva (Manjula Radha Krishnan).

The mother, born to the lowly dalit caste, recruits driver Gopal (also played by Robinson) to drive all four to a temple in Salem, India, which the courts have recently ruled she and her caste must be allowed to enter it. She plans to pray there for Keshav to be “cured”.

The mother neglects to remember that the Salem temple – and others in a region two hours drive from Salem – also include dedications to the queer holy figure Aravan (அரவான், Aravāṇ; also spelt in English Iravan. As violence against dalits breaks out in Salem, the party flee to join other Aravani where the mother comes to realise that caste discrimination and sexual discrimination are much the same.