Lord Reith set the mission of the BBC to Inform, Educate and Entertain and it is rare when a West End play sets out to deliver these lofty ambitions in a commercial drama but JT Rogers has a written a brilliant play that delivers this with an outstanding cast and a slick good looking production. It is a docudrama with a strong feel of verbatim theatre that sets out to Inform us of the role Norway played in the delicate negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in a hectic 12 months in 1992/93. It Educates us on the technique of gradualism in negotiating between extreme opposing factions to reach what seems an impossible goal, challenges us all to consider how we can support the “possibilities on the horizon” and promotes the work of The International Peace Institute. Most of all it Entertains for over two and half hours as the delicate and fraught discussions unfold. Director Bartlett Sher cleverly manages this balance to create an enthralling evening.
We are guided through the process by Terje Rod-Larsen, the first director of the Fafo Institute which played a central role in the negotiations and his wife Mona Juul , a career minded official in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. This couple played by Toby Stephens and Lydia Leonard with grit, optimism and humour provide the exposition of the process directly to the audience and carefully through white lies, misdirection and determination bring the two sides together. As they say “what is a lie but a dream that might come true”. We see little of their personal relationship as the play focuses on their professional engagement in the negotiations.
