In a small, intimate theatre in New York in 2000, a documentary drama had showcased stories of six people whose lives were turned upside down on the day they were arrested for a crime that they never committed. The play — The Exonerated — was written after the playwrights, Jessica Blank and Eric Jensen, interviewed people who lived through its reality. Today, Avantika Akerkar is bringing the play to India, and will be performing with an ensemble of actors, under the direction of Bombay Theatre Company’s Raveesh Jaiswal.

“When playwrights write their plays, they often base them on something they’ve experienced. Then, they build on it, creating imaginary characters and dialogues. This play is the complete opposite. What you’ll hear is a culmination of the actual words of these six people, with only a few words thrown in by the playwrights to bring the piece together,” Akerkar tells us when we drop by to attend a rehearsal at a Bandra space. The sanctity of the script was most important for Jaiswal and Akerkar to preserve. “Everything else that we did in tandem — the beat, the sound, the lights — had to just convey the text,” Jaiswal reveals.