The 2025 Paprika Festival Creative Producers Unit is happy to announce Neptune’s With a Fish, a new work by doctor-turned-clown Srutika Sabu. Directed by Gordon Neil (Sweet Action Theatre), Neptune’s With a Fish is an existential musical comedy starring Malayali-Canadians Srutika Sabu (1 Santosh Santosh 2 Go) and Amrutha Krishnan (Mahjong Mafia Comedy). Sabu plays Chandra, a med school grad who is exiled to a magical Toronto and must appease the talking egg (Kirshnan) she has laid.

Neptune’s With a Fish will premiere as part of Paprika Festival on May 14 and 17, 2025 at Native Earth’s Aki Studio in Toronto. Just in time for Asian Heritage Month, this show talks about the generational mental health toll that points based immigration system has, and the Asian model minority myth.

Banished to a magical Toronto, med school grad Chandra’s promising future implodes when she is forced into an uneasy alliance with a really annoying, talking egg. Facilitated by Fatuma Adar, and mentored by Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava of The Quote Unquote Collective, Neptune’s With a Fish is a semi-autobiographical musical comedy infused with clown energy that merges the psychological angst of Severance with the playful whimsy of Kiki’s Delivery Service with the profound nonsense of Revolutionary Girl Utena. It is an absurd and heartfelt dive into South Asian exceptionalism, inner child wounds, Saturn Returns, and the exhilarating terror of figuring life out right before one turns 30.

Srutika Sabu (she/they) is a gen 1.5 Malayali-Canadian doctor turned clown and multidisciplinary artist. Her work blends absurdity, vulnerability, and joy, using worldbuilding as knowledge creation, using storytelling to explore identity, migration and cultural memory. This year, she was winner of the Mahendra Joshi Playwriting Competition in addition to Paprika Festival’s Creative Producers Unit, she is part of the Buddies Emerging Creators Unit and Nightwood Theatre’s Shadow Residency, expanding her practice in performance, production, and artistic development. She will bring her hit show 1 SANTOSH SANTOSH 2 GO: Tosh Finds His Groove to Upintheair Theatre’s rEvolver Festival from May 30-31 in Vancouver.

Paprika Festival is a youth-led professional performing arts organization where emerging artists and arts administrators access paid opportunities, mentorships, and hands-on labs to develop their artistic practices and gain professional experience in production and arts management.

Neptune’s With a Fish

Paprika Festival Creative Producers Unit

Wednesday May 14 at 7pm

Saturday May 17 at 2pm

Aki Studio, Daniels Spectrum

585 Dundas Street East, Toronto

Tickets and Info at paprikafestival.com

Photo: Srutika Sabu. © 2025 PRAJJ.