Community Spotlight / Exclusive Chat: Zaiba Baig On Her Return To Theatre With ‘The Begging Brown Bitch Plays’

Exclusive Chat: Zaiba Baig On Her Return To Theatre With ‘The Begging Brown Bitch Plays’

Community Spotlight Mar 30, 2026

by Farah Khan | Editorial Director

Exclusive chat with Zaiba Baig on her return to theatre with The Begging Brown Bitch Plays, premiering in Toronto this April.

Award-winning writer, actor, and producer Zaiba Baig is returning to the stage with a powerful new theatre project that brings bold, unapologetic storytelling back to Toronto audiences this spring. Known internationally as the Peabody Award-winning co-creator, executive producer, and lead actor of the groundbreaking CBC series Sort Of, Baig now premieres The Begging Brown Bitch Plays, a double bill running April 1–18, 2026 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

Presented as a House of Beida and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre co-production, the work brings together two new plays—Kainchee Lagaa and Jhooti—which explore deception, desire, migration, and the ongoing act of reinventing oneself. Through dark humour and emotionally unflinching storytelling, Baig centres the experiences of Brown trans women navigating fractured families, displacement, and complicated truths.

Buy Tickets Here

Image Credit: IG @zaibabaig_. Photo by IG @jpg.eden

Kainchee Lagaa

Set between Taxali Gate in Lahore and present-day Etobicoke, Kainchee Lagaa introduces audiences to Billo, a sex worker who spends much of her time waiting for men and eating tandoori chicken in bed while saving money for a chance to escape with someone she loves. Meanwhile, across the world, her estranged brother Arsalan searches for something that feels like home, attempting to reconnect with Billo before survivor’s guilt consumes him. The play explores distance, longing, and the fragile emotional ties that stretch across borders.

Jhooti

In Jhooti, Baig takes the stage herself in a solo performance that follows Sakeena, a woman who leaves home while her sister is at work and sets out to reinvent herself somewhere new. Sakeena claims she’s a Bollywood item number girl—except she isn’t. She insists she belongs here, though she isn’t from here. As Sakeena navigates her own narrative, the play questions the nature of truth, asking whether survival sometimes requires stories that don’t quite match the facts.

Together, Kainchee Lagaa and Jhooti form The Begging Brown Bitch Plays, a bold theatrical pairing that explores identity, migration, and the messy, often contradictory process of rebirthing oneself again and again. Ahead of the premiere, we asked Zaiba Baig about returning to theatre, the ideas behind these new works, and the importance of placing trans bodies at the centre of storytelling.

Exclusive Chat With Zaiba Baig

Farah Khan: You’ve built a remarkable career across theatre, television, and publishing—from your debut play Acha Bacha to the internationally acclaimed series Sort Of. Looking back, how do you reflect on your creative journey so far?

Zaiba Baig: I graduated from theatre school almost exactly ten years ago. A lot has happened in that decade, a lot has changed, both personally and professionally. My creative voice is a lot stronger now, but it’s cool to look back and identify the themes and values that run through all my work thus far: not shying away from nuance, embracing heartbreak and humour at the same time, and always putting brown queer/trans lives at the centre of my storytelling.

Sort Of was a groundbreaking series that earned international recognition and multiple awards. How did that experience shape you as both a storyteller and performer?

I learnt a lot about myself as a collaborator and a leader through Sort Of. From pitching the concept in January 2020 to watching the final episode of the series in the editing suite – and each notes call with producers/execs, writers’ rooms, pre-production meetings with department heads, and filming every scene in between – was a profound lesson in collaboration. I stretched my capacity as a writer, performer and producer because I was invested in doing my best to meet the needs of every person I worked with.

Theatre has been a defining part of your artistic foundation. After your success in television, what does it feel like returning to the stage at this moment in your career?

It feels like the scariest and most challenging thing to do right now, which is exactly right for me because I’ve always moved towards what freaks me out artistically. At the same time, it feels like a kind of homecoming.

Your upcoming project, The Begging Brown Bitch Plays, brings together two new works—Kainchee Lagaa and Jhooti. What first sparked the idea for these stories, and what drew you to present these plays together as a double bill.

The former was first written in 2016 and the latter in 2019, and maybe like four or five-ish years ago I realized the two plays are sisters. Naughty, misbehaving, evil sisters who like to create havoc in different ways but share a deep desire for getting caught in trouble.

You’ve described these works as some of the most ambitious artistic interventions you’ve created so far. What makes this project particularly meaningful for you right now?

These plays exist directly in response to the painful times we’re living through, where trans, immigrant and brown communities continue to be targeted and vilified. It’s important to me to make something relevant right now in a climate where gatekeepers and some artistic leaders in this city are more comfortable with making apolitical and risk-averse choices.

Kainchee Lagaa moves between Lahore and Etobicoke and explores the relationship between Billo and her estranged brother Arsalan. What inspired the emotional landscape of that story?

Growing up with siblings who survive trauma with you and know how to make you laugh until your guts hurt is a sacred experience. I wanted to explore what happens to that sacredness when external things try to sever it, can it actually get broken?

In contrast, Jhooti is a solo performance that you will also star in. What has it been like writing and performing a character like Sakeena?

So much fun!! She’s very lyrical and playful in her speaking but she’s also got some urgent things to say so it’s a good challenge to find a grounded balance in all that.

Zaiba Baig. Credits: Photography + creative direction by Fran Chudnoff, styling by CC Calica, makeup by Rahnell Branton

Sakeena’s story raises fascinating questions about truth, identity, and reinvention. What were you most interested in exploring through her journey?

Why do we feel so entitled to a trans woman’s truth? Why does she owe us anything when so many of us can’t even lift a finger (and no, keyboard activism does not count here) to advocate for her and protect her?

Through your company House of Beida, you support the creative growth of BIPOC trans artists. How does that mission connect to the work you’re presenting with these plays?

There are many trans/non-binary artists employed by my company on this project (majority of whom are trans and racialized). Their voices matter, their energies shape and inform the room and they fill essential creative roles on the plays, which include actors, our sound designer, producing and stage management support and accessibility coordination. All to say, we don’t mindlessly check boxes at House of Beida. We revolutionize creative process through the meaningful and specific employment of trans and BIPOC artists.

What do you hope audiences, particularly South Asian audiences, take away after experiencing The Begging Brown Bitch Plays?

I want us to access all the different ways we can resist and subvert how we’re being dehumanized right now through these works. If you really listen to the characters, they’ll show you how to make the lives of your oppressors so much more miserable.

Kainchee Lagaa + Jhooti: The Begging Brown Bitch Plays
By Zaiba Baig
April 1 – 18, 2026

Buy Tickets Here

Farah Khan | Editorial Director

Author

Farah Khan manages the editorial department at ANOKHI LIFE, overseeing content production, publishing, and the annual editorial calendar, while also supporting operations, projects, systems, events, and vendor coordination.

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