He may live in New York, but playwright J.T. Rogers has spent a lot of time in Japan over the past few years, and it’s not just because he loves the food here (“especially the white sliced bread,” he says). One reason is that he’s the creator of an upcoming HBO series based on “Tokyo Vice,” a 2009 memoir by long-time Japan-based journalist and Japan Times columnist Jake Adelstein. Another is that his Tony award-winning drama, “Oslo,” opened recently with an all-Japanese cast at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, where it runs through Feb. 23.
“Jake and I have been friends since high school in Missouri,” Rogers, 53, says, “and I’d always wanted to make a show inspired by him creating a new life here as a crime reporter — because, you know, the stakes aren’t like covering insurance,” he adds, referring to Adelstein’s work covering Japan’s yakuza.
But moving on to his more immediate project, Rogers notes that “Oslo” also has dark undercurrents, as it focuses on the clandestine talks that led to the Oslo Accords, in which the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) recognized the State of Israel and Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. The play tells the true story of the diplomats and delegates who met outside Oslo in 1993 to work toward peace.