Review: J.T. Rogers' Fascinating OSLO Shows The Messy Business Before The Photo Ops

Two Jews walk into a room.

A pair of Palestinians follow them.

The Norwegian couple who brought them together are as excited as high school lab partners who got the volcano to bubble over at the right time.

And if that seems like an inappropriate way to describe the events depicted in J.T. Rogers' fascinating, entertaining and realistically funny drama, Oslo, that's kind of the point.

When Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands at the White House before President Bill Clinton in 1993, signifying the road to peace that had been agreed upon with the Oslo Accords, the world regarded it as an important historic moment.

But Oslo serves as a reminder that before important people can get together for the photo ops that signify important historic moments, less-important people have to go through the messier business of getting them there.

Helping to make the play so entertaining and clever, without undercutting the seriousness of the subject, is that the premise of the fact-based drama begins as a somewhat naïve attempt at a social experiment.

At the center of it all is a wonderful performance by Jefferson Mays, who plays social scientist Terje Rød-Larsen with sweet sincerity and excitable charm. His wife Mona Juul, an official in foreign ministry (Jennifer Ehle, terrific as the play's more refined anchor), has helped him arrange for participants to try out his theory that peace in the Middle East can be more quickly obtained by removing the high-profile posturing of public negotiations and allowing the participants social time to relate to each other as people.

With it being illegal for an Israeli government official to meet with a member of the PLO, a genial pair of academics (Daniel Oreskes and Daniel Jenkins) are acquired meet with a PLO finance minister (forceful Anthony Azizi) and his Marxist colleague (sternly comical Dariush Kashani).

They're hosted at a comfortable estate with a conference room where they may be left alone to privately hash through the issues separating their people. Between sessions, Terje encourages personal conversations over cocktails and meals.

When it looks like progress is actually being made, the Israeli's send in a serious representative, a director general of the foreign ministry (tough and volatile Michael Aronov) who is a master of manipulation.

Without getting overly sentimental, Rogers effectively brings out the admiration and affection these men have for each other as they defend the demands of their leaders.

With numerous locales and characters, director Bartlett Sher's swift and tense production of the three hour long play never sags as actors roll pieces of designer Michael Yeargan's set on and off.

The play is abundantly talky, but it's the kind of crisp, clever talk that continually stimulates.

History tell us that the accomplishments of the Oslo Accords dissolved quickly, but in a hopeful epilogue we're reminded to keep remembering how far we've come and how much more we can do.

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