KARACHI: The Commune Artist Colony – home to the increasingly popular Yousuf Bashir Qureshi – recently played host to a reading by some of the best in Pakistani theatre namely Ayesha Alam, Nadia Jamil, Atiqa Odho, Umbreen Butt, Raaheen Mani, Anna Bertmar Khan and marked the theatre-debut of radio personality Munizeh Sanai. The play of choice was Neccessary Targets by Eve Ensler, a writer known for her provocative writing in both novels and plays. Neccessary Targets is about two women, one a self-titled Trauma Therapist, played by Sanai, and the other a New York psychiatrist played by Khan who travel to a refugee camp in Bosnia to study the effects of the war on the women there.

Other then the powerful storyline, what was interesting to note was how the characters in the play itself evolved. From the aged woman who suffered through the occupation of her village, to the preppy young girl who was trying to come to terms with what the war meant in itself, each character revealed what the war had left them with, gradually and in their own space within the play itself.

The set was simple; the costumes were all black with the mood of the scene being reflected by alternating the lighting. This left one to concentrate more on the content of what was being said rather then what was being graphically displayed. What was interesting to note however, was that at the end of it all, the ‘doctor’ in the play seemed to integrate and become a part of the ‘victims’.

It seemed to show that at the end of it all, one is not different from the other no matter where he or she may be. The cast, though consisted of strong personalities, seemed to live through the characters realistically enough to render their stories to life during the play.