Monkeying Around

theatre group The Dirty Mac’s debut play.

Written and directed by Warren Dsylva,the play is an original work that owes its existence to the deadline imposed by the Celebrate Bandra organisers and “all the monkeying around that followed”. In fact,Dsylva is yet to come up with an ending. How the story of these three copywriters ends will be revealed only when it is performed on Saturday at Bandra’s HUL park. This is the only play at Celebrate Bandra 2011 that doesn’t belong to Naseeruddin Shah’s theatre group,Motley.

The Dirty Mac was founded by Dsylva and Nikhil Alves,both actors and playwrights,along with Harsh Khorana,who has designed sound and lighting for plays in India and abroad for nearly a decade. The group has a two-point agenda: to concentrate on comedy,and produce original scripts. “This is the best time to produce original work,” says Dsylva. “There are a lot of up-and-coming writers whose works can find an audience. There are also several alternate spaces where they can be performed.” After the play’s debut at Celebrate Bandra,the group plans of taking its offerings — from plays and musicals to stand-up acts — all in the range of the comedy genre to The Comedy Store. Of course,for Dsylva and company,Prithvi Theatre will always be “the Mecca” for theatre in Mumbai. But it’s the “unconventional” spaces for theatre they are keen on exploring.