It takes a certain kind of confidence in your craft, and gumption as a theatre maker, to begin your play with a long sequence miming a strip tease, fully clothed, in absolute silence. The audience is rapt, almost transfixed in that eerie silence. It is clear that Jyoti Dogra is not afraid of uncomfortable silences. Rather, she is in complete control of them throughout the hundred and twenty minutes of her one-woman play Maas. The play is a meditation on shame that invites you to listen to its most raw, honest and heartbreaking conversations. The locus of her shame is her body. She is “female, fat, and fifty,” and she plans to unpack that with us. There is no fourth wall. Dogra directly addresses the audience. Maas performed its first show for an educational institution at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, hosted by the Hebbar Gallery and Art Centre. Playing to a packed auditorium full of young audience members, Jyoti spoke about everything from acne scars and diet culture to postpartum weight gain and menopause.