The Body of an American at Theater J

In the wake of the disastrous Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia in 1993, war reporter Paul Watson photographed a mob of Somalis dragging a dead American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu. The picture, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize, soon led to the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country. This engrossing and provocative play tells the true story of the friendship between Watson and playwright Dan O'Brien, which played out over the course of a lengthy email correspondence as Watson's reporting took him from Rwanda to Afghanistan to the Canadian Arctic. In The Body of an American at Goldman Theater in Washington, D.C., two men on opposite sides of the globe explore issues of war, friendship, mental health and the ethical consequences of personal actions.