Theatre director Justin Lewis happily admits to sometimes making life difficult for himself. And for his creative partner of 25 years, Jacob Rajan. Why else write a play featuring a choir that changes every night and whose members don’t know the plot?

It’s not a theatrical conceit designed to show how clever the Indian Ink collaborators are. That’s beyond doubt anyway. No, for Justin, the concept is central to how their new play works. The audience gets to see how the chorus members respond in real time to what’s going on around them, remembering that they have not seen the play before.

The play in question is Dirty Work: An Ode to Joy, No.11 to come out of the Indian Ink partnership, which started with a roar 25 years ago with Krishnan’s Dairy. That play is still our most successful independent show. It has toured nationally and internationally, several times to sold-out audiences.

In Dirty Work, the office computers are down and the boss in India wants the impossible. The middle manager, his assistant and their chorus of office workers are making a mess of things. Enter the cleaner, who becomes the hero, despite sitting at the bottom of the office hierarchy.

For Justin, the play is about class and the reversal of our expectations. “You see the cleaner in a different way. Everyone is changed from rubbing up against the character.”

He sees echoes of the way our cleaners, checkout operators and other “invisibles” were lauded as essential workers during the pandemic. “And hasn’t that all been forgotten – we raised them up as heroes but then quickly forgot.”

Rather than limiting, Justin sees the challenge of a different choir every night as inspirational. “The challenge for us was how to create a show with a community choir knowing that we wouldn’t be able to rehearse the story with them. We had to figure that out, and it led us to some interesting places.

“Creativity comes out of limitations and restrictions. Freedom is impossible. We need limitations to give us a set of things to work with.”

“The lovely thing is now that we’ve figured it out, it’s effortless for the performers and effortless for the choirs.”

Not effortless to begin with, though. Choir Viva Voce and its musical director, John Ross, were essential to the process. “We could only put this show on with that collaboration. John and the choir worked with us, testing ideas and making suggestions. It was an essential collaboration because it was about working out how to make it work.”

Looking back on the company’s stellar run, Justin admits to it being beyond anything he could have imagined. “Jacob and I started out making one play, then we went on to three and then we decided to make some more. We just kept going.”

The success of Krishnan’s Dairy also keeps going, with a national tour last year selling out. “The play blazed a trail for now a couple of generations of performers to consider careers in ways they may not have otherwise. I bump into people who say things like I saw Krishnan’s Dairy and decided to make my career in the performing arts,” Justin says.

So what’s next for Indian Ink? “We don’t know but we’ve got to come up with something! There’s a full slate for next couple of years with bookings. We’ve got Mrs Krishnan’s Party touring the US. The existing repertoire has a lot of life in it.”

“Jacob and I are taking time now to take a breath and think about our next shows. We’re mid 50s and I figure that means we’ve got another 10 years, which for us is another four shows. We’re thinking about that.”

Dirty Work: An Ode to Joy, Isaac Theatre Royal, Fri 28 – Sat 29 July,
indianink.co.nz