Review Roundup: OSLO, Starring Jennifer Ehle and Jefferson Mays, Opens at Lincoln Center Theater

Commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater, J.T. Rogers' Oslo officially opens tonight, July 11, at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

The cast includes Michael Aronov, Adam Dannheisser, Jennifer Ehle, Daniel Jenkins, Dariush Kashani, Jefferson Mays, Daniel Oreskes, Henny Russell, Joseph Siravo, and T. Ryder Smith, directed by Bartlett Sher.

It's 1993. The world watches the impossible: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, standing together in the White House Rose Garden, signing the first ever peace agreement between Israel and the PLO. How were the negotiations kept secret? Why were they held in a castle in the middle of Norway? And who are these mysterious negotiators?

A darkly comic epic, Oslo tells the true, but until now, untold story of how one young couple, Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul (to be played by Jennifer Ehle) and her husband social scientist Terje Rød-Larsen (to be played by Jefferson Mays), planned and orchestrated top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: Even if you never thought about traveling to Norway, you'll probably want to visit the inevitably titled "Oslo," the absorbing drama by Mr. Rogers...At a very full three hours, with many international stops, this play is long and dense enough to make you wonder if you should have packed an overnight bag. Yet what Mr. Rogers and the director, Bartlett Sher, have created is a streamlined time machine, comfortably appointed enough to forestall jet lag...I leave it to historians to confirm or dispute the accuracy of Mr. Rogers's portrayals. But he has done a fine job of mapping the lively, confusing intersection where private personalities cross with public roles.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: One remarkable aspect of this very fine production, directed with unerringly precise attention to detail by Bartlett Sher, is that while its mechanics as a theatrical presentation are emphasized from the start, they enhance rather than impede our involvement in a fascinating true story. This is a play alive with tension, intrigue, humor, bristling intelligence and emotional peaks that are subdued yet intensely moving, which concludes unexpectedly on a poignant note of hope...Rogers' drama artfully locates the human story in a delicate account of political diplomacy...without dumbing anything down, Rogers, Sher and their faultless cast deliver maximum clarity as well as urgency, drawing out the distinct personalities with great nuance and a considerable amount of wit.

Robert Kahn, NBC New York: Mays ("A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder") is Terje Rød-Larsen, director of a think tank, who theorizes that a negotiation will only bear fruit in an environment where enemies can relate on a personal level, learning the names of each other's children and so forth. He has a fine complement in Ehle ("The Coast of Utopia") as his wife, Mona Juul, an effective diplomat who quickly plugs press leaks to preserve the sanctity of the undertakings and is the more grounded force in their union...I never felt as if "Oslo" had a pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian political stance; that fact alone lends the story heft. Finally, Mays' Terje makes the point that, results notwithstanding, at least it was possible for Israelis and Palestinians to come to the same table.

Linda Winer, Newsday: What hardly anyone knows, however, is that the real negotiations for the first-ever agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization had secretly been happening for more than a year in and around Norway, of all places, between people unknown to history and without meddling from the major -- apparently clueless -- big powers. If that improbable fact fascinates you, so probably will "Oslo" -- J.T. Rogers' ambitious three-hour, fact-based fiction that director Bartlett Sher and his creative team...have lovingly, painstakingly staged...The political making of sausage is legendarily not a pretty sight. It is also pretty talky. Still, Rogers, Sher and their generous, marvelous cast do much to lighten the agonizing back-and-forth of the rogue operation with convivial unlikely scenes of eating, joking and drinking among fierce adversaries.

Matt Windman, amNY: J.T. Rogers, a politically-oriented playwright who has written about the Rwandan Genocide and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, dramatizes the tense negotiations that led to the Oslo Accord in his long-winded (three hours long!) but smart, occasionally humorous and objectively-observed ensemble drama "Oslo"...The performances are excellent and the spare, video-enhanced staging is seamless, accommodating swift changes in setting. The play may be dense and choppy, but a more narrow and delicate treatment probably could not have captured the scale and intensity of the political process.

Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly: Rogers has a bit of a gift for transforming contentious, complex historical subjects into digestible, but not dumbed-down, entertainment...And though Oslo clocks in at about three hours, it's by no means a slog...But perhaps what's most impressive about Oslo is its evenhandedness -- and its optimism. You might wonder with whom Rogers sides, the Israelis or the Palestinians. Frankly, neither. Or both. What's clear is this: He's for peace.

Christopher Kelly, NJ.com: A story of process, patience and the painstaking art of negotiation, J.T. Rogers' play "Oslo"...manages a seemingly impossible feat: It transforms three hours of talk about the Oslo Accords into gripping and urgent entertainment...this much-hyped show is as as wildly ambitious as it is thrillingly executed. Crisply directed by Bartlett Sher...never once does any of this feel confusing or bloated. Instead Rogers shows us how historical change is, in effect, the accumulation of tiny details...The cast is exceptional, with particular props to Mays and Ehle, who serve as our anchors in the complicated story, and who smartly refuse to offer easy answers to the fundamental mystery at the heart of the story: Namely, why did these unknown Norwegians become so deeply invested in the negotiation?

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Photo Credit: T. Charles Erickson