Mumbai has plenty of theatre festivals, but it has never had one quite like this. The Tarpa Theatre Festival 2026, billed as the city’s first dedicated open-air theatre festival, opens in Aarey on May 15 with a three-day line-up of nine plays staged across an amphitheatre, an outdoor performance space described as “plays under the tree”, and a daily programme that begins at 7:30 AM with theatre workshops.
Organised by Artists for Aarey in collaboration with the local Warli Adivasi community, the festival runs until May 17 and has been put together as a deliberate attempt to bring contemporary Indian theatre into direct dialogue with the environment it is being staged in.
Day 1 — May 15:
The opening day features three productions:
- Jikni @ 11:00 AM — a 45-minute musical docu-drama created with children from Vadavli-Sonale, Palghar. The title means “riddle” in the Katkari language, and the production is rooted in the children’s lived experiences, exploring local nature, agriculture, rituals, folklore, language, and community life.
- Naam Mein Ka Rakhwo Hain @ 3:30 PM — a play set in a fictional village where, on every full moon night, the eldest woman presents a riddle, and the man who solves it earns the chance to tell her tale — but the story must be a lie.
- Kavan @ 6:00 PM — an Ambedkarite operatic satire that follows young Bejul and those around him as they navigate dreams, desires, and dilemmas through caste and class in a rapidly changing India.
Day 2 — May 16
The second day’s line-up centres on stories of women across age groups and geographies:
- Tottochan @ 11:00 AM — an adaptation of the well-known Japanese tale of a young girl expelled from her first-grade school for “indisciplined” behaviour, who joins the Tomoe School and finds her own way of learning. Parna Pethe plays the lead.
- Tuji Aukat Kaye? @ 3:30 PM — the story of Vedika, born into the devadasi tradition, who escapes her destined fate and sets out on a journey of survival and self-discovery, leaving a place of “oppressive comfort” for an uncertain freedom.
- Lavani Ke Rang @ 6:00 PM — a performance that goes beyond Lavani’s familiar high-energy image to offer a glimpse into the lives of women performers from matriarchal communities in Maharashtra, focusing on their resilience, creativity, humour, and lived experience.
Day 3 — May 17
The festival concludes with three plays themed around the relationship between humans and the natural world:
- Kaakasaurus @ 11:00 AM — a storytelling performance for children and families that imagines what happens when a crow starts evolving backwards. Inspired by the mischievous crows of Indian cities, it follows Rajji on a chase through the neighbourhood as the crow transforms into the unstoppable “Kaakasaurus”.
- Gubu Gubu @ 12:00 PM — a play devised in the Nandiwala folk style of storytelling from Maharashtra and Karnataka, telling the story of a city-dwelling Saheb, a hardworking farmer, and the power of agricultural knowledge.
- Sangeet Bibat Akhyan @ 6:00 PM — set in rural Maharashtra, the play unfolds in a small village frequented by a leopard, as fear, superstition, and misunderstanding take hold of the villagers.
More than just plays
Beyond the play schedule, each day of the Tarpa Theatre Festival follows a wider event schedule designed to integrate participants into the rhythm of Aarey itself. The day begins at 7:30 AM with a theatre workshop, followed by seed ball making, Warli painting sessions, and a breakfast break. After the morning children’s play, there is a lunch break, followed by a session of conversations, plays under the tree in the afternoon, a tea and snacks break, and finally the evening plays at the amphitheatre.
The format is, by design, an unhurried one — and one that places the festival’s plays within a broader frame of ecological and cultural engagement with Aarey.
Tickets and details
The Tarpa Theatre Festival 2026 will be held from May 15 to May 17, 2026, in Aarey. Tickets are available on the Skillbox platform. Updates on the festival are also being shared by the organisers on Instagram here.
