Peter Goldmark was executive director of the Port Authority (of New York) from 1977-1985. During his time there, he recognized how vulnerable "iconic targets" like the World Trade Center, JFK Airport and various bridges were to terrorist attacks. In fact, he predicted the 1993 attack on the WTC. In 1984, he and a special task force pegged the Center's underground parking lot as dangerous and even mentioned, in a report, the possible MO for a potential attack. This report was pivotal in the recent trial against the Port Authority. Meanwhile, the attacks, both of 1993 and of 2001, had left Goldmark shaken and had got him thinking.

In 2002, Goldmark and his friend Mark Gerzon, got together to co-author a play called "The Trial of Osama bin Laden," which is playing at The Old Arizona Theater in Minneapolis. As the Times puts it, the play "is meant to stimulate public dialogue -- and perhaps prod public policy." Goldmark, himself, said: "After 9/11 there was a sort of numbness, accompanied by a frenzied patriotic rallying and little thought. I want to help Americans understand, and be strong enough and bold enough to demand wise things from their government.''

The play is interactive, with director and audience participating. The basic premise: Osama bin Laden is in prison and starts forming a bond with his liberal lawyer, the child of Holocaust survivors. But, there are two possible endings -- one, worst case and the other, more positive.

Emphasizing its utilitarian purpose, Gerzon said, "It's not a play you put a ribbon around and say, 'What a great piece of art.' It's a play that's supposed to catalyze civic debate."

Perhaps it's not "great art" in the traditional sense -- it won't be winning any artistic awards. But, any piece of art that really speaks to what we're going through as a society today is great art, regardless of what it's creators say.