Performed: August 2023 at the Nimbin School of Arts.

Written by the Nimbin Theatre Troupe’s incomparable Mustapha al Shaheed, Five Monkeys is a parable, an exploration of Buddhism’s five precepts, and a glimpse of a human soul passing through the Bardo.

It’s more humorous and lighhearted than that makes it sound – this play was written for puppets, and the puppetshow type humour comes through clearly in how the five monkeys talk and interact with the Buddha.

We see the darker (and dumber) sides of humanity at play, and we see how a spark of love and a spark of intellect can overcome the darkness… but more entertainingly, we also see all human pompous, self-righteous, self-serving arrogance held up to ridicule by a set of downright hilarious monkeys and one very inquisitive little Buddha.

This play was rehearsed to be performed as a double-header with Check Please, as they are both quite short one-act plays, but unfortunately due to circumstances beyond any control, Five Monkeys was instead performed in a “dinner and a show” format at the Nimbin School of Arts, and was very well received.