My Trip to Al-Qaeda
Written by Lawrence Wright
Directed by Gregory Mosher
Culture Project
55 Mercer Street
212-352-0255

Review by Randy Kandel

In his one-man play, My Trip to Al-Qaeda, Lawrence Wright plays himself: a handsome, charismatic journalist who has just finished writing the daunting and critically acclaimed book, Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. The book tells the story forever etched into our national psyche through four interconnected biographies: Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the FBI’s counterterrorism chief John O’Neill, and Prince Turki al-Faisal, former head of Saudi intelligence. Through meticulous research (over 560 interviews and never-before-seen documents), Wright exposes the details and nuances of each personality with writing that is provocative, probing and chilling.

The Enemy Within: Lawrence Wright uncovers the seeds of terrorism in his solo show My Trip to Al-Qaeda.

The play provides an even more intimate perspective on how excess, indifference, and fear on a global level are self-defeating. Wright recalls the anxiety, anger and suspicion of colleagues and acquaintances in countries where there is nothing to do but explode. Remarkably, although Wright reads from his book, and has a Power Point presentation running behind him, this does not feel like a book lecture. Director Gregory Mosher deserves partial credit for the escalating dramatic tension. But the lion’s share belongs to the materials Wright has collected. They include film footage of imprisoned Egyptian Muslims, including Zawahiri, banging on their cells, chanting, and shouting about their torture, and pictures of the road to Mecca and its renovated mosque that has a capacity for a million pilgrims, both built by bin Laden’s father. Poignantly, the last clip shows Americans holding naked detainees at bay with wild dogs, and the last anecdote Wright tells is of his home phone being tapped. "We have become them," he says.

Wright’s message is clear: although Al-Qaeda loves death, only we can destroy ourselves. In conveying this message, Wright, the journalist turned playwright turned actor, has accomplished a triple tour de force.