Back in June, when Goa-based theatre director Keatan Jadhav was putting the final touches to his new play, Dumb Indignation, he asked Amodi Sanap, who was to play the lead, to carry out an experiment. "I asked her not to wax for a few weeks, and then travel between Goa and Pune. During this time, she made notes of the kind of stares she got from people," said Jadhav. When Sanap returned after two weeks, she came up with shocking stories of how she received judgmental looks. "And all because she hadn’t shaved the hair on her hands and legs," added Jadhav, who is also a performance arts teacher at Vidya Prabodhini College of Education.

The experiment set the wheels in motion for the play, which is non-verbal and movement-oriented. Presented by Theatre Flamingo, a travelling theatre group run by passionate thespians, who perform in experimental spaces, Dumb Indignation "challenges sexist notions, especially those that give men an upper-hand in the society". "Men have always tried to subjugate women by impressing certain ideas of beauty on them. So, just like in the Elizabethan Era, when women were forced to wear corsets, now, they are forced to get rid of their body hair," explains Jadhav, who has conceived and directed the play. "Sometimes, women are mocked at by their own ilk, and judged for not waxing. This is ridiculous. Who decided that this was ideal?" he asks.