In her solo show, writer/performer Anna Khaja illuminates the lives and historical forces surrounding slain Pakistani Prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Brutally assassinated in 2007, Bhutto had just returned to her homeland from forced exile, in an attempt to reunite a nation bitterly divided over the ideals of Islam and democracy. The eight characters depicted by Khaja in SHAHEED, form the prism through which we view this enigmatic and multi-faceted head of the Pakistani People’s Party. Each monologue takes place in the minutes leading up to Bhutto’s assassination, at a massive rally in a park in Rawalpindi. In SHAHEED, we see how Bhutto’s life and death resonate far beyond the boundaries of Pakistan, reshaping the world’s struggle to reconcile the precepts of Islam with those of democracy.
