Waleed F. Zuaiter, Jeremy Beck and Sevan Greene in George Packer’s new play, Betrayed, now playing at Culture Project (55 Mercer Street). Carol Rosegg

NEW YORK, NY February 07, 2008 —HOST: Betrayed is a new play about the Iraq war. It opened at the Culture Project in SoHo last night. It's based on a New Yorker article by the journalist George Packer. Packer wanted to drew attention to plight of Iraqis who served the U.S. as translators and informal diplomats. In return, those Iraqis are seen as traitors by many of their countryman. They are forced to hide, avoiding families and neighborhoods, constantly living in fear of being murdered. It is a situation Packer described in a recent interview as a "moral scandal." But when Packer was invited by The Culture Project to turn his article into a play, he didn't think of it as a work of advocacy theater. Here's George Packer.

PACKER: This is not a series of monologues meant to galvanize audience to write letters to congress. This is a play in which the focus is on relationships and inner life and change of characters.

HOST: The play follows the story of three Iraqis...characters who are a composite of some of the many people Packer spoke with while reporting in Iraq. Packer says he tried to portray Americans as well as Iraqis in all of their contradictions.

PACKER: The audience will certainly think about the context of the war and America's obligation to some Iraqis.It's not to excuse official policy it's simply to put a human face to every aspect of the war which is what a play about the war should do.

HOST: In one scene, Adnan, played by actor Waleed Zuaiter, applies for a job as an interpreter with the young American political official Bill Prescott, played by Mike Doyle.

FROM PLAY: Adnan: You must change yourself when you come to Iraq. And we too must change to understand you. B/c we cannot have life without a common language between us. You must pay and I must pay also. And believe me, when you finally know them, Iraqis are all good and nice and simple. Prescott: Well that's an illusion that Americans share about ourselves, so we should get along fine

HOST: Omer Salih Mahdi worked as an interpreter in Iraq, and served as Packer's inspiration for the main character in the play. He addressed the audience during a recent post-show discussion.

Omar: What you've seen tonight is explanation to problems of what Iraqis have to go to keep themselves alive. Everything is really a true picture of what's going here.So I'm really hopeful by seeing this it's to learn a little bit about the fear that we lived with in Bagdhad and where the people now is living. There's no way to run, there's no way to go, you are there alone, on your own.

HOST: Firas another Iraqi, has been the in US for just over two years. He also attended a recent production.

FIRAS: and this play was a quick flight back to Baghdad that reminded me of how is the life over there. I haven't worked as an interpreter but in Iraq everyone is a target, whether he's target for his money or ethnicity or religion ... it's really difficult to convey the picture to Americans, I always try to do so but this I think this is a good way to understand the complexity of the situation.

HOST: At the heart of Betrayed is the question of our responsibility to the Iraqis who are serving our government. and one audience member, Beth Novick, didn't want to be let off the hook

Audience Member: I think we like to have a connection in a good way to what's happening, or someone we can root for. We like to feel good about ourselves that we just watched this guy's story and we connected with it, so now we're better people. But we're not.

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