A public movement, built block-by-block by individual voices over a period of time, can lose power if the stakeholders fail to keep the issue at the forefront of public consciousness. Theatre director and playwright Raju Tulalwar fears the same fate for India's #MeToo movement, which had peaked exactly around this time last year. The two-act Marathi play #MeToo by his fledgling group, Theatre Academy Thane, will see its fifth show at Gadkari Rangayatan this week. A cast of nine women and eight male actors, half of them first timers, are rallying around him to "do our bit to keep the issue burning." They all live between Mumbai and Thane and have day jobs ranging from radiology to commercial photography and even marriage counselling. Tulalwar, 58, has been associated with children's theatre for over three decades. He first wrote this play for a one-act contest in Ahmednagar, which won the jury award.

Enthused, he reworked the script with two gender-exclusive acts—one hour devoted to the women's narratives of sexual manipulation, followed by a second act of male confessions and honest inquiries into the sexual etiquette of the day. At the foundation of both lie candid drawing room conversations over changing social mores, contained within a box set designed by Prasad Walavalkar. The conversations touch almost every aspect of the debate—from delayed registering of police complaints, court trials, social media buzz around celebrity instances, social excommunication faced by families of perpetrators and survivors, and most importantly, the way forward. The script avoids an extreme standpoint or irrational cure-alls. Most importantly, the nuances in each story emerge prominently. Neither men nor women are portrayed as unidimensional. For instance, the women recounting exploitation are cognizant of the supportive men in their lives; similarly, men accused of serious misdemeanour admit to the second and third chances of reform allowed to them by women colleagues and spouses.