In an unnamed corner of the earth, a small community of hybrid creatures called Hummals are suffering. Enter Hummal monkeys, from another part of the world, with their own set of miseries. Does their arrival add to the Hummals' woes or is this a plot to obscure something sinister?

On the surface, A Farming Story by Irish-Indian writer Vineet Bhalla is a dystopian fairy tale. But as the script unravels, its eerie resonance with contemporary issues becomes more obvious. The play, where Hummals or human-animals who farm for a living struggle with crop failures, and where Hummal monkeys turn refugees in a bid to flee forest fires, won the 2016 Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Award.