Keep it Short and Sweet – an ongoing theatre festival

Short and Sweet, a short-play festival will showcase close 20 ten-minute plays at the NCPA this weekend. The format of this festival, which was started in 2002 in Sydney and the Delhi chapter that travelled to Mumbai last year, inspired actress and theatre professional Ira Dubey to get Mumbai its own version.

“There are three reasons why I wanted to do this. First was to create opportunities for fresh talent. Mumbai is a city full of talented people and the idea of giving them a platform was a huge driving force. Second, it has taken me years to even get my friends to come and watch a play. The idea of going to theatre for fun is still alien to people, unless you’re from the theatre world of course. So, with this new format I was hoping to create a new audience, because this format is perfect for the ‘SMS generation’. Third was to take theatre back to its pure form. We do not encourage any multimedia use. The idea is to not create a spectacle but to have a uniform, democratic form of theatre that uses good writing and good performances to tell a story,” explains Dubey who has been involved in theatre since the age of five.

Lillette Dubey’s Prime Time Theatre company has collaborated with the worldwide Short and Sweet festival outfit to present this year’s festival which has been an exhausting but enjoyable process for Ira. “Alex Broun and I read over a hundred scripts before finalising the 20 that we’d feature,” says Dubey. The only criteria was the time. “We are showcasing 10 plays a performance, so we don’t have the luxury to include anything that’d run beyond the stipulated time.”

After finalising the scripts, through an online process, directors and actors were finalised. On Sunday, the best 10 short-plays will be presented. “We have had personalities like Dolly Thakore, Raell Padamsee and others come in to judge the plays, but the audience gets to vote for their favourites too.”

The best 10 will be staged at National Center for Performing Arts on Sunday at 4pm and 7pm. Dubey is excited about the finale but she definitely wants to take the best plays to other venues and to other cities across India as well. While there is loads of fresh talent, personalities like Mita Vashishth, Akarsh Khurana and Shivani Tanksale are also involved with festival to give it more credibility. Though only two Hindi scripts have made it to the final line-up this year, Dubey hopes to see more next year.