Michael Muthu is peeved. Lately, with all the focus on gifts, snow, Santa Claus, the North Pole, pixies, and elves, he feels the real meaning of Christmas is getting lost. And through Mellow Circle’s annual Christmas play, he plans to shine light on what the festival actually means. “I talk about why Christmas is so important. It’s about the birth of a saviour,” he says about the upcoming play.

Titled The Debt, this is an original piece written and directed by Michael Muthu. “Mellow Circle contacted me in March this year and asked me to write one. Usually I write a play when we don’t find a good enough Christmassy play. It is a challenge to find a well written one because they are either too soppy or too childish,” he says, listing out a few of the well-written ones that they did over the years like A Christmas Carol, Two from Galilee and It’s a Wonderful Life.

By April, Michael had the play ready. He wanted a fun Christmas story. “It’s a bizarre story; it’s farcical almost,” he laughs. It is about Freddie Fingers, a gangster, and Adrian and Jack, brothers who are caught in a peculiar situation and need to get out of it. They owe Freddie money and have to find a way to pay him back. Freddie has a unique way of extracting debts. The whole play is about his transformation and how the brothers try to pay Freddie off by Christmas. “That’s all I can give away for now,” says Michael.

At the rehearsal for this year’s play | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The 110-minute production as always has songs by the Mellow Circle choir. Michael has directed around 22 Christmas plays for Mellow Circle and written around five of them. “It’s as difficult as writing any other play. The special challenge here is that Mellow Circle always includes a choir in their production. So, I try new ways of incorporating it into the story,” he says, adding that as he writes the story he identifies parts where the choir needs to come in. And what does he like about these productions? “It’s a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Nothing is sweeter than that.”

The Debt will play at Museum Theatre, Chennai on November 22, 23 and 24 . All proceeds from the play will fund the Mellow Circle‘s Prathyasha Home of Hope for children with HIV . Donor passes priced at ₹2,500, ₹1,000 and ₹500 are available on Paytm Insider, and by calling 9840029047.