The trial of Osama bin Laden

Near the beginning of "The Trial of Osama bin Laden," an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union meets for the first time with her client.

"Mr. bin Laden, good morning."

"Good morning Mrs. Shapiro, what news do you bring?" bin Laden responds.

"Well we have a jury as you've seen. Very interesting mix, and very thoughtful people, and one American Muslim. The prosecution took a real chance with that one."

"So these 12 people -- who don't know each other and don't know me -- these 12 people hold my fate in their hands. Is that not so?"

"Mr bin Laden, you told me it is Allah alone who can decide your fate. What do you care what 12 ordinary Americans decide?"

Mark Gerzon wrote the play. He says the idea came to him right after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He realized the antagonists on both sides would never meet face to face.

"That they'd probably kill each other or kill themselves before they'd ever look each other in the eye. And so I began, probably a couple months after 9/11, writing "The Trial of Osama bin Laden," says Gerzon.

The notion of bitter enemies actually meeting holds powerful meaning for Gerzon. He resolves conflicts for a living as president of the Colorado-based Mediators Foundation.

"When you go face to face and eye to eye with your adversary, you change. We change," Gerzon says. "And, if we never go face to face with our adversary, if we bomb them or kill them or stereotype them from a distance, we never have to change because we never have to get to know our enemy. The Bible says, 'Know your enemy.'"

Gerzon co-wrote the play with his friend Peter Goldmark, former publisher of the International Herald Tribune.

Gerzon says they brought it to Minneapolis partly because of the rich theater scene here, but also because they believed New York and Washington are still too traumatized to host a play about 9/11.

First, they staged a reading at Theater De La Jeune Leune. A year later, they held a week-long workshop at the Ordway.

"The Trial of Osama bin Laden" is a play within a play. As they portray the fictional proceedings, the actors, director and producer debate the direction of the drama. Audiences become flies on the walls of the courtroom, the jury room, bin Laden's jail cell, and the home of his defense attorney.

Director John Clark Donahue says in the play, the character is chosen after throwing her name in a hat along with 99 other ACLU lawyers.

"And wouldn't you know it would be a woman, and a Jewish woman, from Brooklyn, with a husband and a 10-year-old daughter. And you could imagine what that does to their family life," says Donahue.

"You know why I put that name on that list. It was a commitment to everything this country supposedly stands for, everything you stand for too, am I right?" says the lawyer to her husband. "I mean, defending a hated man in our courts -- it's the essence of the difference between us and those people."

"But what if it destroys us? We're nothing without family," he responds.

"If we can't defend this man, fully and fairly, then we are nothing."

"The price is too high."

"It's always too high, always when you do the things you have to do. Especially when you're all alone," she says.

Writer Mark Gerzon says the play reflects a multitude of perspectives on the war on terror, on faith and on American values. He says it's designed to challenge people of all political persuasions.

Gerzon says there's a point in the play when bin Laden outmaneuvers some of the more liberal characters.

"And they realize that their typical liberal responses simply won't work in the war on terror," says Gerzon. "We're saying it's a brand new world with brand new rules, and we've got to rethink our politics."

Gerzon hopes the production is eventually staged in communities around the country. He wants it to ignite a deeper national conversation on the battle against terrorism.

"Right now many Americans are reading the newspaper as if it's George Bush's and the Senate's and the House of Representatives' business," says Gerzon. "The fact is it's our business, just like Social Security's our business, and just like taxes are our business and just like any political issue's our business. This is our business."

Gerzon says in "The Trial of Osama bin Laden," the players and producers have trouble deciding how the third act will go. He says Americans are facing the third act in the war on terrorism, and they need to write it themselves.

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