Have you been at your amiable best while texting someone, with the smile drawn across your face disappearing the instant you put the phone down? Or, has a verbal duel with a friend on WhatsApp gone so out of hand that it makes you ache for the days you hugged it out soon after a tiff? Would you rather that your phone conks out than land unlocked in the hands of your girlfriend? The constant urge to check our phones aside, there are far more insidious - and sinister - ways in which technology can hold us captive.

Charades, a new play directed by Swagata Naik, attempts to bring this face of technological dependence to life through the stories of seven friends - all young and successful professionals, played by a Mumbai-based cast - who meet over dinner at a house party in a Malabar Hill apartment.