Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott head up an effective adaptation of JT Rogers’ play Oslo, which sacrifices wordiness for cinematic verve
“Now we are approaching the hour of the waffles”
JT Rogers’ Tony-winning play Oslo was a hit at the National and in the West End but it was still a little bit of a surprise to see it receiving the televisual treatment, not least with Steven Spielberg named among its executive producers. Fortunately though, Rogers remained fully involved in writing the adapted screenplay and the play’s director Bartlett Sher has kept his hand on the directorial tiller, going for some luxe casting with Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott and broadening the canvas to include flashback scenes and some gorgeous Scandinavian location work.
Oslo recounts a dramatised version of the true-life, secret back-channel negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization which led to the then-pivotal 1990s Oslo Peace Accords. Wilson plays junior minister Mona Juul and Scott her husband Terje Rød-Larsen, a Norwegian couple who find themselves in the position to bring the two opposing sides to the same table on neutral territory, reinvigorating a non-existent peace process but under absolute secrecy. They’re both terrific, fighting the need to be non-interventionalist until there’s nothing to do but close your eyes and jump in. Continue reading “#AdventwithClowns Day 7 – Oslo”