By IANS
Washington/Lahore : As former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto prepares to return home, a play on her father who was president and later prime minister of the country and his execution is to be staged in New York next week.
Alter Ego, an off-Broadway company of South Asian professionals, is staging the play “The Leopard and the Fox” based on her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his trial on murder charges and his execution in 1979 which was widely perceived as judicial murder.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto superseded three seniors to promote Gen. Ziaul Haq as the army chief, only to be deposed by him in 1977.
The play opens Oct 17 in New York and goes on until early November. It is based on noted London-based Pakistani origin writer Tariq Ali’s play by the same name.
It has been adapted by Rajiv Joseph and directed by Giovanna Sardelli, the Daily Times said Saturday.
Inspired by Tariq Ali’s BBC screenplay, the play portrays Zulfikar Bhutto at the time he was overthrown in a coup by his army chief, Gen. Ziaul Haq.
Joseph appropriately updates this story of betrayal and broken promises to include Bhutto’s daughter Benazir as she successfully negotiates with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to end her self-exile and share power with him.
Joseph’s previous works include the South Asian American coming-of-age story “Huck and Holden” and the romantic comedy “All That Intimacy”.
His Iraq war dramatic comedy “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” will open at Los Angeles’ Kirk Douglas Theatre in its 2008-09 season.
The cast of “The Leopard and the Fox” features Ramiz Monsef, Andrew Guilarte, Gita Reddy, Sanjiv Jhaveri and David Sajadi.