Surrealism can find you in the most unlikely of circumstances. For instance, when director and performance artiste Aditi Venkateshwaran quips, “We are all mosquitoes. Our life barely has any value today,” the inner eye immediately travels back to a term that led to one of the most memorable anti-establishment uprisings in recent Indian history. This surrealism is enhanced owing to the sleep-deprived nature of our conversation at 8 am. As it happens, this feeling is at the core of Venkateshwaran’s play, Dearest, I Beg Of You, Please Sleep Properly, that opens in Andheri on August 6.

“Life in a big city, particularly an Indian city, feels like an adventure park gone wrong; a surreal tragedy,” she says. The Pune-resident points out, “Whenever you meet someone and ask them, ‘How are you doing?’ the general response seems to be, “I am good, but I am very tired”. We are all tired; and not just from one thing, but everything. This is not normal anymore.”