The audience, gathered entirely through social media and word of mouth, settles to watch Sunil Shanbag’s new production, Marriage-ology. It’s a hall converted into a performance space, as part of Shanbag’s attempt to explore new venues. His wife Reetha Balsaver and long-time associate, actress Lata Sharma volunteer as ushers. A few young men. wearing Marriage-ology T-shirts guide people to the hall, and hand out programme notes. It’s all very informal.

In his introduction to the performances that follow, Shanbag says that there is so much talent in Mumbai that the city is running out of venues. To give these young actors and writers a chance to perform before an audience, Shanbag started Tamaasha, which will work with new ideas and new talent. Marriage-ology was created just for Ave 29, and, will perhaps, move to other such non-traditional venues.

Marriage-ology is a selection of eight short pieces with a common theme; some are fresh pieces, some selected from literary work, and the finale, in which Shanbag returns as an actor opposite Natasha Singh is an excerpt for Dario Fo’s rambunctious farce on a couple’s attempt at an open marriage. Shanbag’s favourite piece appears to be Nok Jhonk, written by Munnawar Ali and Himayatulla, in which Imran Rashid and Nisha Dhar play a Hyderabadi couple, squabbling in Deccani Urdu, a dialect of such lilting charm that even a verbal duel sounds romantic.

Mumbai audiences would identify with Churchgate Couple, one part of, “The City Duet”. A young married couple (Shivam Sharma, Avantika Ganguly) meet in their lunch hour at the station, because that’s the only time they can manage to have a private conversation. They live in a small flat with other family members, where moments of intimacy are furtively stolen, and love talk nigh impossible. Written by Sapan Saran, with heart-breaking tenderness, and performed with charm by the two young actors, this piece is the highlight. The other part of the “Duet”, written by Vinod Ranganath, is about a couple (Gillian Pinto and Sukant Goel) that climbs up the ladder of success, only to find that they have no time for each other. It’s the kind of life many in Mumbai aspire to, and realise, that life has passed them by.

Add to this excerpts from the works of Khaled Hosseini, Shaif-ur-Rahman, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a song by Pink, and Marriage-ology makes for an evening of heady theatre, even though the props are functional. And, as Shanbag says in jest, there is no intermission, because there is no cafeteria and a break would leave the audience with nothing to do. Still, it’s a successful experiment, and one worth emulating. All it takes is a Tamaasha to build bridges between spaces, eager writers, performers and audiences willing to be engaged.

Ave 29
Sat July 5 & Sun July 6.