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Monkey Business, produced by LO IQ Films and Asiyah Majeed and Sajeel Meer Kazmi, and directed by Yasir Hussain, opens to a simple living room set. It’s the home of Mr and Mrs Waseem, a couple trying to stay afloat on limited means. Mrs Waseem paints. Mr Waseem acts, though the work doesn’t always translate into income. They live in a house provided by her father, which hints at the money problems that quietly shape their days.

The story kicks in when Mr Waseem receives a call from an investigation officer at the Arts Council. That’s when the calm living-room vibe cracks open. It turns out Mr Waseem, played by Hussain, has built an entire fake identity to secure a financial support scheme meant for struggling artists. He pretends to have a limp. He claims his wife is deaf so she can qualify for the same monthly support. One lie became two, and then the lies kept piling up. His wife has no clue. And now the officer is coming over to check for scams, and get signatures on documents.

Once the officer arrives, the chaos begins. The lies have to look real, the characters have to act in ways they didn’t prepare for, and the house slowly becomes a stage for improvised trickery. What starts as a “small harmless lie” grows into a full circus, and Mr Waseem’s scramble to stay believable drives most of the humour.

The central idea of the play is simple: if artists were paid fairly, especially through royalties, maybe they wouldn’t be pushed towards desperate measures. The message is clear, but the delivery moves between comedy, drama, and social commentary. At times, the play tries to juggle too much. It wants to entertain, crack jokes, tell a moral story, and also drop serious takeaways. That mix works in some scenes but feels uneven in others.

A few creative choices could have been more contained. The background music, for instance, didn’t always help the scenes. It felt slightly loud in moments that didn’t need it. The final 20 minutes also stretched longer than necessary. The ending still worked, but a tighter close would’ve helped the overall flow.

Where the play really shines is the comedy. Hussain leans into the madness of the lie-spinning husband, and the script gives him plenty of room to play. Some jokes cross into crass territory, but a lot of the jabs are sharp and genuinely funny. The pop culture punches — Ahsan Khan, Humayun Saeed and Aamir Khan’s perfectionism, Aishwarya Rai’s daughter Aradhya, cricket legend Wasim Akram, and even the classic Memon pronunciation bit — land well with the audience.

One surprising standout is the “kooray wala (trash collector)” character. He enters as part of the chaos but ends up delivering a small moment about cleanliness and the state of Karachi. In fact, the city’s infrastructure and filth come up more than once, with the memorable line: “Shehr ka haal bohot bura hai. Ya mujhe Lahore bhejo ya Maryam ko yahan bulao (The state of the city is quite bad. Either send me to Lahore or call Maryam here).” It’s funny, but it stings because it’s true.

The dialogue carries the play and some lines echo in the audience’s mind long after the curtains close. “Cheating ko Waseem bhai se zyada koi nahi janta (No one knows cheating better than Waseem Bhai),” “Kitne Sherry maaro ge, har ghar se Sherry niklega (How many Sherrys will you kill? A Sherry will appear in every house),” and “Kabhi yahan gir rahe ho kabhi wahan. Kya Indian forces ne tayyar kiya hai (You’re always falling all over the place. Did the Indian forces prepare you)?” These are the punches that keep the audience hooked. Sherry, the upstairs friend who joins the lies with full energy, adds another layer of fun.

In the end, Monkey Business is a light-hearted watch. It makes you laugh, slips in a few reminders about ethics and survival, and gives you a glimpse of how artists hustle behind the scenes. It rambles a bit, and preaches a little, but also entertains. And sometimes, that’s enough for a night out.

This is Monkey Business’ second run — the first was in April this year. Monkey Business is running at the Arts Council of Pakistan in Karachi till December 18.

Photos: Jawwad Mushtaq via Yasir Hussain/Instagram