Do you ever find yourself starting a discussion about the war in Iraq with the disclaimer, "Well I don't know the specifics of the situation, but..."? Do you enjoy a good Bush impersonation? Will you need a little intellectual stimulation this Sunday after a weekend of Homecoming debauchery?
If you silently answered yes to any of these questions, go see the Dartmouth Theater Department's bench reading of "Stuff Happens" at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 15 in the Bentley Theater.
David Hare's controversial "Stuff Happens" debuted in London in 2004 to much critical acclaim. It chronicles the events leading up to the Iraq war and features prominently President Bush, Tony Blair, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney and Colin Powell. Many of the characters' lines were extracted from documented statements -- the title of the play itself was a response that Rumsfeld issued when asked about the looting in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad: "Think what's happened in our cities when we've had riots and problems, and looting -- stuff happens," he commented.
"Stuff Happens" is full of didactic social commentary and controversial interpretation of historical events. While Hare based much of his dialogue on publicly-issued statements and information, a small portion of the play is speculative, imagining and creating the processes of the Oval Office.
Hare purportedly spoke to several sources about the confidential events he portrays, however, and while it is by no means a factual documentation of private events, the play is based in reality. In the words of the playwright, "'Stuff Happens' is about power. And there's one man who understands power, and that's George Bush. I describe it as a play about how a supposedly stupid man, George W. Bush, gets everything he wants -- and a supposedly clever man, Tony Blair, ends up with nothing he wants."
This is the kind of play that will make you cackle, and then hurriedly swallow your laughter once you have realized what exactly it is that you find so amusing -- the leaders of the free world, the processes of your government, historical fact.
Borrowing a line from the play, "[t]he real is what will strike you as really absurd."
Hare's ability to convey his own very liberal point of view without significantly deviating from publicly-aired reality is astonishing, and Sarah Hughes '07, the play's director, insisted that her actors remain true to the text. "The text stands alone as Bush-hating and very liberal," she remarked during rehearsal, and she urged her actors not to devolve their characters into caricatures. What makes "Stuff Happens" so effective is its nuanced interpretation of actual events. It is sickeningly believable.
Similarly believable are the performances of the actors in this production. Joshua M. Feder '08 is an especially familiar President Bush, and one can hear Rice's voice inflections in the speech of Latria N. Graham '08. One scarcely notices the actors reading from the scripts, and Hughes' clear staging makes the snappish political dialogue easy to follow.
This is a performance meant for campus consumption without complication or pretension, just text, words and events. So attend "Stuff Happens" and see if it doesn't inspire your curiosity and fuel your hatred either for the Bush administration or for unabashed liberalism. Educate yourself.
A panel discussion at 4:30 p.m. will follow the performance. Panelists will include Peter Saccio, Professor of English, Kevin Reinhart, Professor of Religion, and renowned journalist Thomas Powers.
