[Guest post by Arjun Moorthy]

On Wednesday night I saw the world premiere of The Leopard and the Fox, a play by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The story is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the coup in which Zia Ul-Haq overthrew popular prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979.

I expected a largely paan-eating desi crowd, but was surprised to see a good number of granola non-desis in the packed house of about a hundred seats. It’s always encouraging to see a non-desi audience interested in something deeper than Khaled ‘Melodrama’ Hosseini.

Politics usually makes for fascinating theater. The story had more than a few parallels with Julius Caesar. And with Joseph’s discussion of CIA espionage, the story was absolutely riveting. But I found myself yearning for comic relief at times — there’s only so much socialism one can handle on an empty stomach. I wasn’t expecting Yes Prime Minister, just not The West Wing.

Bhutto is played by Ramiz Monsef, a freakishly tall actor who seemed more like Big Bachchan than Zulfikar. Like Bachchan, he charms with quips like, “Democracy cannot flourish in a warm climate — you need a dreary place like England for it to take hold.” Strangely, much of the swearing in the script was Westernized. I know Bhutto had an elite upbringing (USC/Cal/Oxford), but what about the others? We were finally vindicated with ‘panchods’ and ‘motherchods’ at the end of the first act.

CIA agent Ed Asmaan (David Sajadi) is blessed with great lines. In one scene, he delivers news of the coup to his superiors. Ed would have made Agent 86 proud with a cryptic report of foxes, eagles and chickens before finally breaking down: ‘For God’s sake… there has been a damn coup, Bhutto has been arrested, and the head of his lesbo lion has been cut off.’

Some audience members objected to the portrayal of Bhutto as a drunken chain smoker during the Q&A. One man said it was tantamount to insulting a Nehru. At that point, the playwright explained the word “adaptation” in excruciating detail.

Joseph’s main addition to the original teleplay was an exchange between Musharraf and Benazir. It ominously foreshadowed yesterday’s bombing in Karachi .

Some scenes needed polishing. The scene where Benazir (Gita Reddy) requests a whiskey from Washington Post writer Dave Cherry (Michael Crane) was not convincingly coy. Of course, I can be slow when it comes to women sometimes. And Andrew Guilarte’s Zia had an on-again, off-again desi accent. But these are minor nits in an otherwise impressive play.