Review: 'Oslo'

by Daniel Hill

Oslo is a play based on the negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. The play was first seen on Broadway and it won the Tony Award for Best Play earlier this year. The play was written by JT Rogers and was directed by Bartlett Shar. Having transferred from the ‘great white way’ to the National Theatre it was deemed too good for just that run and is now showing at the Harold Pinter Theatre to almost full audiences each night. There is always something quite special about a play which adds to the atmosphere and although the play was equipped with this, I did think it was missing something.

The play-script gave the audience an insight into an interesting story and one which I had not been previously intrigued by. This was enhanced by moments of comedy which were injected throughout the play and gave this subject a lighter feel. Although JT Rogers may have often used a bit of artistic license in his script, this failed to take away some poignant and heartfelt moments. It is even possible to say that these moments were often enhanced. Rogers also used narration to pass the story along which was especially powerful when paired with the direction towards the end of the play.

The cast gave the show a good retelling after its initial run on Broadway. It was Lydia Leonard in the role of Mona Juul who dominated the performance through her narration and naturalistic acting. Speaking directly to the audience is a hard thing to master, but Leonard had this skill perfected and made her performance that extra bit special. Unlike a handful of the other actors, she maintained her Norwegian accent throughout the play and did not realise that it was missing half way through the line. Other performers who particularly stood out were Peter Polycarpou and Phillip Arditti who both commanded the stage when they were present and created tension in the room when they were on stage together.

Both the directing and design was commendable. The staging used at moments was both powerful and thought provoking. The use of projection was used well and was often used to give the audience a further insight to the situation which was not able to be put across through words. The final scene in which all actors were on stage, each standing in their own personal spot in an almost ‘Blood Brothers’ style really portrayed the story in a deeper way. It was looking at this image, along with some other moments, which stripped the characters down into the bare humans they actually were. Although some moments did slightly drag and slow down, overall it was not a bad play in any light whatsoever. Shar’s direction added conviction to a piece which was overall good.  

Personally, I am writing this review with a slight confusion as to why this play was awarded the Tony Award for best play. Although there was not anything that stuck out which was bad, there was a slight spark which was missing to make this a notable 5 star production.