Tick Tock Ten!

THE well-known micro-drama festival, 'Thespis', will soon be back in the capital with its fifth edition.

- PANKIL JHAJHRIA

India's first festival devoted solely to microdrama, has made a OG name for itself in the country's theatre scene by embracing compactness without compromising creative nuance.

The festival's stringent ten-minute time limit for each play encourages authors, directors, and performers to condense the story into a shorter version.

Organised by Vriksh - The Theatre, a collective formed in 2015, 'Thespis 5: National Micro Drama Festival' will be held on February 1 at Delhi's LTG Auditorium, and will feature short plays by theatre practitioners from across India.

A time of financial constraints gave rise to the concept of micro-drama. Vriksh's secretary, Ajith G. Maniyan, remembers that the theatre had trouble raising money while they were working on Hearts That Wrote History, a full-length show based on the life of former Indian civil servant, V.P. Menon. It was filmmaker Prakash Vaddikal who suggested experimenting with short-format drama.