Oslo: World Conflicts and Solutions in the Age of Acceleration

Oslo, a hit play by J.T. Rogers, running at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in New York City, is a story of international peacemaking,

 Rogers based the action on a true story of how Norwegian government officials, husband and wife Terje Rod-Larsen  and Mona Juul, initiated secret peace talks between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the early 1990’s. Eventually their creative and valiant efforts led to the Oslo Accords (described in The New York Times as “a fleeting moment of bright hope in an enduringly dark realm of conflict”).

Early in the play, Terje explains that the new model he ascribes to is rooted in the personal, not in the organizational; he addresses each point of contention with individuals, rather than the forces they represent.

“It is only through the sharing of the personal that we can see each other for who we truly are,” he says.

He acknowledges his personal flaw—judging Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after seeing one side him. Described in The New York Timesreview as a "pontificator with a peacock streak," Terje’s ego threatens to obstruct the process; but he is able to accept Mona’s (well-intentioned) confrontations. Their openness to each other makes them an ideal couple, capable of the enormous task they undertake.

Mona, the expediter, interprets for the participants in the peace talks as well as the audience. Her “quiet but commanding serenity” defuses “tensions and restores perspective.”

 In elevating the theme of the personal, Oslo dovetails with Thomas Friedman’s brilliantly comprehensive book, Thank You for Being Late.

Replete with explanations of the world’s predicament (stemming from our age of acceleration) Friedman, like Terje proposes that we make contact on the personal rather than the organizational or governmental level.

Not surprisingly, food is a unifying element in both the play and the book. Mona and Terje supervise the preparation and serving of delicious meals that dissolve the diplomats’ defenses like lumps of sugar immersed in warm water. Friedman cites his hometown, St. Louis Park in Minnesota, as a model community, where the Lincoln Delicatessen brought together Jews and Gentiles who grew comfortable feasting on Jewish food and experiencing Jewish culture. [Quoting Grunstein, Friedman concurs that national governments are too cumbersome, distant, and, lack the agility needed (to resolve conflicts) in the age of acceleration.]

Conclusion: As communicated by Rogers in his play and by Friedman in his book, despite our differences, we share the same appetites and goals to survive and to thrive. Principles that build a creative relationship between two people also resolve the conflicts of nations.

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