Betrayed

Culture Project presents Betrayed, by George Packer. Pippin Parker directs.

In early 2007, The New Yorker writer George Packer published an article about the desperate situation of the Iraqis who had risked their lives to help the American effort in their country and were being hunted down as a result, with little or no U.S. protection. The article helped draw national attention to a humanitarian crisis and a moral scandal.

Betrayed, Packer’s first play, based on his interviews in Iraq and other countries, tells the story of three young Iraqis — two men and a woman — who are motivated by hope to go work for the Americans, until they begin to wonder who, if anyone, can be trusted. Betrayed explores the complex relationships among the Iraqis — and between them — and their American supervisor, against the backdrop of a war in which the hardest and most necessary thing turns out to be friendship.