Oslo

OSLO

Guest Review

Oslo, directed by Bartlett Sher, is a very interesting play. It examines the efforts of a few daring individuals who challenged conventional (and ineffective) diplomacy in 1993, creating a secret back channel through which representatives of Israel and the PLO - entities that until that point had either denied the other’s legitimacy or promised its annihilation to meet and negotiate.   They introduced the concept of gradualism versus totalism, fostered by the then-novel concept that the negotiators should actually know each other as human beings. 

Does that make it sound dry?  It does sound dry.  Yet however improbably, the play is riveting.

The characters depicted represent five nations, five languages, and wore many, many tongue-twisting names.  Their personal and cultural contrasts make for great conflict and great humor.  This wry wit permeates - occasionally laugh-out-loud, but more often quietly uplifting.  This is a very intelligent play that is smart enough to let us feel smart too.  

How do they do it?  How do they keep us on the edge of our seats when the actual outcome of the story is a fait accompli? I am not entirely sure, but this is my brief theory.

Multiple small layers of conflict underlie the large ones represented by Israel and the PLO. There are struggles between husband and wife, between wife and boss, between Norway and the US (although the US doesn’t know about it for quite a while), and among the members of the individual delegations.  The characters are introduced slowly, so we have time to become invested in each of them and in their points of view, which are almost always at odds.  

Jennifer Ehle and Jefferson Mays

The acting was superb.  I was too far away to read the faces well, but the way they used their bodies and their voices told the big story and many little ones.  You could read the country/culture of origin by body language as much as by accent and name.  The scene contrasting the ebullient Israeli and the physically more inhibited Norwegians was priceless.  It would have been interpretable without sound, so vivid was the physicality.

I wish I could give more of an analysis, but I was so quickly sucked into the story that I lost myself in it.  I couldn’t tell you anything about lighting.  The flexible set, by Michael Yeargan,  was elegant and spare. Regarding sound: The actors are not miked.  Their voices project well, but I occasionally had trouble deciphering the last word of a line.  At my daughter’s insistence, I used the offered audio assistance device and was glad of it.  

The Vivian Beaumont Theater is very comfortable, steeply tiered so that visibility is good from every seat.  There is comfortable seating in the lobby, a rarity in a Broadway house.  And Lincoln Center’s outdoor spaces are a gift on a beautiful day.   

This work touched my mind more than my heart, but it touched me.  I left thinking about the courage expressed by all of the characters involved, including that expressed by the playwright, J.T. Rogers, and producers who dared to mount such a challenging piece, and did it so well.  

If you are going to see this play, and I recommend that you do, do it soon.  This Tony Award winner for Best Play (also, winner of the Drama Desk Award, The Drama League Award, and many others) is closing July 16. It may be tough to get a seat, but it will be worth it.

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Guest review by Jeanne Genova-Goldstein - What do I look for in a play? I want it to let me share someone else's experience of the world.  I want to learn something new.  While I also indulge in pure entertainment - classic musicals, farces - they are like eating ice cream.  I love ice cream, but sometimes I need a challenging play for sustenance.  I love it all, even when it is bad. There is always something to learn from it.