Mumbai''s first-ever brush with the Australia found international festival Short+Sweet, organized by the Primetime Theatre Co in Mumbai, and lead by Ira Dubey, threw up some interesting concepts for short plays. While the atmosphere around the festival was rather dull (we have been spoilt silly by festivals that give us platform performances, readings and interactions all in one space), some of the plays were certainly worthy of being staged again. It must have taken a grand effort on the part of the organisers to bring the novel concept to Mumbai and that deserves applause. Yet, Short+Short has a long way to go before it matches the mad energy seen at ''36 Ghante'' (an evening of short plays) that was staged at Prithvi a few years ago. Here''s a play by play analysis of the festival:

10,000 CIGARETTES (by Alex Broun, Australia) started the festival on a good note. It is a breathless piece with perhaps the largest cast. The girls, dressed in black and red ensembles, looked good as they spoke of the virtues of smoking. Unfortunately not every actor''s voice carried through and that upset the balance of the play. If one missed a couple of dialogues getting back into the loop was a little difficult. But with witty dialogues like, 'May God give him an ash tray in heaven', the play made catching up easy.

PRE-COITAL (by Satchit Puranik, Mumbai) featured a casual chat between a bride-to-be and a mehendiwali. Cigarettes feature in this piece as well and a craving for one last smoke before the D-day becomes a take off point for the play. The experienced mehendiwali agrees to answer the inquisitive bride''s questions if she''s allowed to ask questions too. The concept was certainly interesting and the two young women shared a certain level of chemistry to pull off the awkward bond but the play ends on a rather abrupt note.

FAB NEW WORLD (by Vinodhini Vaidynathan, Chennai) is an interesting take on a young, white-collar man who spends most of his life in his office cubicle. The man''s social life is restricted to a social networking site, particularly Facebook, and he seems to derive thrills from a large number of unknown friends and random status updates. His obsession takes physical form in Fabiola and the play portrays their evolving relationship.

IT''S THE QUIET ONES YOU HAVE TO WATCH OUT FOR (by Chris Sims, Delhi) appeared to be a re-interpretation of Samuel Beckett''s WAITING FOR GODOT with a couple of mannequins from a clothing store in place of Didi and Gogo. The mannequins tell the audience about their lives, hopes and expectations in an effort to build an emotional connect. Anuschka Sawhney and Rajeev Siddartha have a good stage presence but beyond a point waiting for 'The Call' with the frustrated mannequins gets pretty tedious.

MAIN THAK GAYA HOON (by Shruti Vyas, Mumbai) finally broke the fantasmagorical tone of the festival with its stark portrayal of a real life incident where a man is arrested and mistreated by the police because his brother elopes with a young girl. There was a lot more action on stage as compared to previous plays, which was also refreshing. The play, however, gets restricted in the 10-minute format and does not achieve much depth. Moreover, while the use of expletives in a police station is warranted, the actor must note that an officer rarely raises his voice as much while asserting his authority.

TESTING WATERS (by Aishwarya Mahesh, Mumbai) depicts a conversation between a young man and his insecure girlfriend. The playwright gives the typical bedroom comedy a here-and-now feel and gets the desired laughs from the audience. The piece is largely predictable and thankfully remains rather short. Swati Das''s performance in the piece does stand out though.

GROWING UP (by Karan Shetty, Mumbai) is a fun piece about life in an engineering college. The guitar-strumming rebel friend and stuttering, geeky roommate are typical college characters. The two actors do a good job of playing off each other''s differences before they become friends because they both belong to the same community. Their awkward bond and a band called Paranoid United State of Suicidal Young or PUSSY is formed through the course of the short play. This one earns its laughs.

NO. 22 (by Adele Vuko, Australia) is yet another bizarre piece that''s held up by a decent bunch of actors. The play is about two men and two women begin held captive in a cell. The audience is not told why so that interpretation rests entirely on your imagination. All we know is that the two incessantly talkative women (who are sisters) have survived in the cell for a long period, one of the men seems mostly frustrated because he''s tired of hearing the two women and the latest entrant in the cell is trying to get a grip on his circumstances.

THE CHOCOLATE AFFAIR (by Stephanie Walker, USA) features real live chocolates - Mr Goodbar and an M&M - having a conversation with a young mother who steals chocolates from her daughter''s Halloween candy. The play tackles the woman''s bingeing issues and loneliness but the most noteworthy thing about this piece were the candy costumes.

HE AND SHE (by VK Arathi Menon, Mumbai) takes the sex change and matrimonial website concepts to a crazy level. Here''s how the play begins: a man and a woman are energetically canoodling on a park bench before they start talking to each other and reluctantly reveal that they''ve both had a sex change. Now that the secret is out in the open the two find that although they cannot be in a relationship (because that would be bizarre, really!?), they can be friends who can discuss the most intimate of details from their lives with each other. We''re just confused about the two working things out AFTER a generous bout of PDA.

THE CONFESSIONS OF A POET (by Deepak Dhamija, Delhi) is another cliche-ridden piece with a poet mouthing his verses, while his mother rues his failure in life, a drunk friend finds his 'padhne ka shauk' shocking and a disappointed girlfriend (?!). The playwright-director gives us some interesting lines but the constant talk in verse makes us want to believe the friend when he calls the poet a 'fraud Ghalib'. What works in this piece is the stream-of-consciousness style of direction.

ONE WISH (by Rajiv Rajendra, Chennai) shows a fun interaction between a genie and the man who summons it. The jaded genie schemes her way through the entire play because she wants the wish-granting business over with. The refreshing take on the interaction seems a bit inspired by the egomaniacal djinni Bartimaeus created by Jonathan Stroud but we''re willing to ignore that because this genie has a profile on Facebook!

A SUNSET BEFORE SUNRISE (by Swetanshu Bora, Bangalore): A disappointed writer and a waiter at a restaurant have a conversation while the author tries to work on his next book. If a waiter threw words like 'jettisoned' and 'glitterati ensemble' at us and got the pronunciations right too, we''d know we were hallucinating. The author takes a lot longer than that to realise the same though and that explains why even ten minutes seem too long for this piece.

Shivani Wazir Pasrich''s I AM TIGER impresses easily. The actress has a confident stage presence and her experience as a dancer makes a world of a difference. I AM TIGER follows the life journey of a tiger from the wild to a zoo. This piece was only a curtain raiser to a larger production the Pasrich has planned to open later but even as a teaser it deserved a get-up-and-take-notice look.


SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE SKY AND SEA (by Alex Broun, Australia) was given an adrenaline boost by the actresses and the backing of a live musical set but even that doesn''t do much to salvage the piece. The protagonist, who is equally drawn to Satyabhama (the sky) and Rukmini (the sea), does not give us anything to connect to and that''s why the play doesn''t achieve its full potential.

THE SHADOWS WITHIN (by Sonal Moore, Australia) works on a remarkable concept so it''s not surprising to know that the play won awards at the Short+Sweet Delhi in 2010. The play features three characters - Rose, a woman struggling to retain her sanity, her consciousness, a psychologist. The young actress, who plays Rose (and whose name wasn''t mentioned on the schedule) might want to consider acting in more plays even if that means juggling a career as a lawyer.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A HAT (by Tarini Pal, Delhi): It''s surprising to know that this piece was written by a Delhi-based Pal because it seems right out of a sketch written for a British show. The play takes an irreverent look at a royal family through the eyes of their staff who struggle to stick to the schedule because the queen has lost her hat. With superb timing on the part of the actors and seriously fun writing, this piece ought to be brought back on stage more often.

THE FAT LAZY BUMPY (by Priyanshu Painyuli, Mumbai): It takes a while to get this piece but when you realise what characters the boy and girl play, it turns out rather interesting. Kallirroe Tziafeta and Sailesh Gilani do a great job of playing the TV and remote.

BECAUSE THE WORLD NEEDS UNICORNS (by Cerise de Gelder, Australia): This script is a winner all the way and what makes the play even better are Rahil Gilani as Noah, Abir Abrar as a unicorn and Adhaar Khurana as a dragon. Noah won''t let the blonde unicorn into his boat but the fire-breathing dragon wrenches a seat for himself and his wife. Really, what''s not to like in the goings-on?

*Charulata enjoys watching theatre, and writing about it.