Shaan Sahota is a playwright and doctor working in London. Her first play was shortlisted for the 2020 women’s prize in playwriting and earned her a place with (theatre company) Tamasha’s ‘Playwrights Scheme 2020.
In March 2020, she was redeployed to her hospital’s ICU to care for severely unwell patients with Covid 19. As a result of her experience on the frontline, Shaan was approached to create Under the Mask. It is an immersive audio drama in binaural sound, with elements recorded live on Covid wards. It allows the listener to share the heartbreak and wonder of a junior doctor, thrust into the throngs of a global pandemic. It will be staged at the Oxford Playhouse in March 2021.
Before training as a doctor, Shaan studied History and Spanish Literature. She then worked in domestic violence advocacy for Southall Black Sisters, specialising in BAME survivors of honour-based violence.
1. Which place, or city or country do you feel most at home in?
I feel an inexplicable affinity for Mexico, where mariachis come to sing in bars as you share a 19th century electric shock between friends , all over bowls of melted cheese. It feels to me like an exaggeratedly brilliant place, where the history, vibrancy and colours are all somehow enhanced.
2. What are your proudest achievements?
I lived in Mexico City for a year, I defied my nerdy physiognomy to become a competitive kick boxer and am planning a year out to work with a medical NGOs in Liberia.
I feel proud to retain a sense of adventure and freedom as I grow older despite all the nudges and expectations to lose this.
3. What inspires you?
I love the feeling of connecting with something outside of myself. For me this comes through my work, and also through art. Through say, reading the memoirs of a 17th century monk, or caring for a vulnerable adult with psychosis and seeing the same light in all of us.
4. What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?
I struggle to know what I want and how to focus my ambition or energy. It’s difficult to advance if you don’t know where you want to end up, and I don’t know where I want to end up!
5. Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
I think having a mother who is a doctor, and who gains a lot of joy and fulfilment from medicine has been a very positive role model to me. My father has a sterling work ethic and is so committed and diligent, and I think his example has also served me well.
6. What is the best aspect about your current role?
Medicine allows me to be the one stranger in the room at times of existential transition. The reality of these moments is often so implausible we wouldn’t ‘buy it’ in a film. I think it’s a real privilege to connect and care for people during these private and vulnerable experiences.
7. And the worst?
It’s pretty consuming and can be very painful to observe.
8. What are your long term goals?
I find it hard to know what I’ll want in the future and committing to long term plans make me feel trapped. I hope I work to serve my community and bring others up. I hope to have a full and varied life.
9. If you were PM, what one aspect would you change?
This is boring, but I’d bring in proportional representation; I think ‘first past the post’ is a massive disincentive to political engagement and creates a sense of democratic impotence. I’d also bring in some radical animal rights and environmental policies!
10. If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
For reasons I can’t explain, it’s Jesus Christ. What would he be like?!
