About the Play:

Winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Play

Oslo is a full-length political thriller by J.T. Rogers. This thrilling nail biter tells the true story of how two maverick Norwegian bureaucrats assembled a motley band of would-be diplomats from the Middle East to attempt the unimaginable: negotiate peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Their quiet heroics inspired seemingly impossible friendships and helped lead to the groundbreaking Oslo Accords.

Oslo tells the true but widely unknown story of how one young couple, Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul and her husband social scientist Terje Rød-Larsen, 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. Everyone remembers the stunning and iconic moment when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands on the South Lawn of the White House. But among the many questions that laced the hope of the moment was that of Norway's role. How did such high-profile negotiations come to be held secretly in a castle in the middle of a forest outside Oslo? Operating only through back-channels – in secrecy, and without any official bargaining power – the group struggles to find common ground between the Israeli and Palestinian envoys as political tensions reach a fever pitch. But at the heart of diplomacy lies empathy, and these peacemakers must rely on quiet heroics and the strength of the surprising personal bonds they have forged if they want to succeed. Set against a complex historical canvas, Tony Award-winning Oslo is a story about the individuals behind world history and their all too human ambitions.

Oslo premiered in 2016 Off-Broadway at Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in Lincoln Center and then transferred to Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 2017. The multiple award-winning play opened in 2017 at the Royal National Theatre, before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End of London.

Cast: 3 female, 11 male

What people say:

"…as expansive and ambitious as any in recent Broadway history…[A] colossus [with] urgent behind-the-scenes intimacy at its fast-beating heart…a marvel of both expository efficiency and exciting showmanship, by which a big picture is revealed to be a composite shot of precisely defined, imperfect individuals." — The New York Times

"…unequivocally fascinating… This is what we call drama, and it's what we live for." — Variety

"…a madly engrossing play…gripping human drama…[OSLO makes] diplomacy not just interesting but moving…." — New York Magazine

About the Playwright:

J. T. Rogers is a multiple award-winning American playwright who lives in Brooklyn, New York. His works have been produced on Broadway in New York City and in the West End of London; they have also been staged throughout the United States, and in Germany, Canada, Australia, and Israel. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and the Pinter Review Prize for Drama.