Lights Out

"I wrote under the compulsion of an extreme sense of guilt and shock."
Manjula Padmanabhan

"Indecent Curiosity, Foolish Plans" 
Sunday Observer

"Exposing Areas of Darkness with Lights Out" 
Indian Express

"Lights Out: 'hot focus' on human weakness"
Mid-Day

"Voices of Silence"
Times of India

Lights Out is based on an eyewitness account of a crime that occurred in the early 1980s. The characters are fictional. The incident is a fact. In real life, as in the play, a group of ordinary middle-class people chose to stand and watch while a woman was being brutalized in a neighboring compound. In real life, as in the play, the incident took place over a period of weeks. And in real life, as in the play, no one went to the aid of the victims.
This edition of Lights Out includes a new introduction by the playwright. It also publishes some important reviews around the time when the play opened in Mumbai in 1986.