nigel shawn williams with hardee t. lineham, david fox and sarah orenstein (2008)The old adage “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely” is vividly on display in the Studio 180 production of David Hare’s play Stuff Happens presented by Mirvish Productions at the Royal Alexandra Theatre until December 23rd, 2009.
This play catapults its audience right into the centre of the Oval Office in the moments before September 11th, 2001 and with gripping urgency thrusts itself into the world of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and Blair as they launch the world into the War on Terror and then curiously shift gears from one strategic quest for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan toward the ultimate invasion of Iraq. It is largely a piece of Verbatim Theatre, as Hare has successfully woven the plot together with real excerpts from political speeches, interviews, diaries and other sources within the public record, and it is continually difficult to differentiate between that which is historically accurate and that which has been concocted by the playwright. What is so striking is how Hare has captured such a sense of urgency, such a driving and riveting pulse while ultimately he is telling a story that is so familiar to us all. We are watching a recreation of events that we all lived through, whose effects still shape the world we live in each day. There is no suspense and no opportunity for a surprise ending. And yet, Hare’s choice of words, the manner in which he chooses to cast light on each individual player, and his dramatic and shrewd sense of timing makes Stuff Happens an intensely compelling evening at the theatre.
The performances in this production are absolutely top-notch. It is fantastic to see fifteen Canadian actors filling the Royal Alexandra stage and each one of them is at the very top of his/her game. Sarah Orenstein gives a beautiful performance as a Palestinian academic who has one of the most poignant monologues in the play about how often those who have been continually victimized and whose history is besieged with oppression and brutally so often in their liberation and redemption become the captors and the oppressors of others. Paul Essiembre is wonderful as the shrewdly perceptive Dominic De Villepin who refuses to allow diplomacy to grant the United States a UN supported free access pass into Iraq solely for its own ambitions and political agenda. Karen Robinson plays Condoleezza Rice as, primarily, George W. Bush’s translator, who acts like the White House’s referee and keeps her own opinions on all matters strictly to herself. She captures Rice’s poise and sense of propriety beautifully and is equally proficient in capturing her rare self-righteousness expressions of anger. Hardee T. Lineham plays a Dick Cheney who broods quietly throughout most of Act I and then seizes his moment, seemingly blinded by pure, dark visions of power dancing like machine gun wielding Sugar Plum Fairies across his consciousness. Lineham and David Fox (as Rumsfeld) have a chilling moment near the end of the play where all pretenses are thrown to the dogs and these two men speak candidly about their personal reasons for wanting to go to war in Iraq. Andrew Gillies captures Tony Blair’s tense nervous sense of decorum amid chaos fantastically in a portrait of a man whose pursuit of lofty humanitarian ideals ultimately proves the theory that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
David Fox is brilliant as Donald Rumsfeld, with absolutely perfect physicality and Fox captures his vocal quality with unbelievable precision. Michael Healy inhabits the role of George W. Bush so entirely, he becomes nearly unrecognizable. He has the former President’s vocal timbre down so perfectly, if you close your eyes you may be tricked into thinking that you are listening to a prerecorded presidential speech. Healey’s performance was also distinctly hysterical, both in the quotations that Hare chose to include in the play and in the actor’s flawless delivery. Stuff Happens is a play filled with some of the strongest personalities in recent history, and I could see that in different productions of this play different performances may stand out as being the “starring” role. In Toronto, the star is undeniably Nigel Shawn Williams as Colin Powell. Williams gives such an impassioned performance as a man torn between his moral instinct to do “the right thing” and his commitment to respect and dutifully obey the orders from his government. Williams has all of Powell’s dignity, his intelligence, his strength and his humanity and it is fascinating to contrast Williams’ Powell, who is so filled with emotions and feelings and genuine concern, with all his American colleagues who are dangerously devoid of them. Joel Greenberg directs the play with vivid creativity and the utmost precision. The production is clean, sharp and has all the professionalism of a tightly-run meeting in the boardroom.
Stuff Happens is a gripping play and for any one who opposed the Iraq invasion, who objected to the Bush Regime and the choices of the Republican Party of the United States of America, this play reaffirms the position that the choice to defeat Saddam Hussein and destabilize his country was not rooted in humanitarian efforts or directly linked to the 9-11 attacks. It turns Cheney and Rumsfeld into villains and makes fun of George W. Bush at every opportunity. While I found this fun, I also found myself asking if Hare’s play wasn’t a little bit *too* one-sided. Yet, as much as I deliberate on the issue, I am at a loss for what exhibition of virtue Hare could have injected into his Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush to make them more complex and sympathetic. The one complex issue that this play raised for me was one that I had not previously encountered: should the United Nations have supported America’s invasion of Iraq, not because it agreed with the mission, but because with the support of the rest of the Western World, the Iraqi people may have been better provided for throughout the insurgency. This question has percolated in my mind since last evening and remains one for which I do not have an answer.
There is a monologue near the beginning of the play in which a frustrated journalist (played by Essiembre) rants that we are so “Western” in our need to debate and to intellectualize the methods of every political decision. Stuff Happens is an incredibly “Western” play, but it is one that seems to suggest its own limitations, its own bias and one that refuses to accept the rhetoric that was created to sell a war, to mobilize an army and to invade a country which has killed between 94,349 and 102,949 innocent Iraqis. The curtain may have fallen on Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and Blair; may it, like in Hare’s play, now rise on Iraq and the country’s need for relief from the devastating consequences of America’s “War on Terror.”
This play catapults its audience right into the centre of the Oval Office in the moments before September 11th, 2001 and with gripping urgency thrusts itself into the world of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and Blair as they launch the world into the War on Terror and then curiously shift gears from one strategic quest for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan toward the ultimate invasion of Iraq. It is largely a piece of Verbatim Theatre, as Hare has successfully woven the plot together with real excerpts from political speeches, interviews, diaries and other sources within the public record, and it is continually difficult to differentiate between that which is historically accurate and that which has been concocted by the playwright. What is so striking is how Hare has captured such a sense of urgency, such a driving and riveting pulse while ultimately he is telling a story that is so familiar to us all. We are watching a recreation of events that we all lived through, whose effects still shape the world we live in each day. There is no suspense and no opportunity for a surprise ending. And yet, Hare’s choice of words, the manner in which he chooses to cast light on each individual player, and his dramatic and shrewd sense of timing makes Stuff Happens an intensely compelling evening at the theatre.
The performances in this production are absolutely top-notch. It is fantastic to see fifteen Canadian actors filling the Royal Alexandra stage and each one of them is at the very top of his/her game. Sarah Orenstein gives a beautiful performance as a Palestinian academic who has one of the most poignant monologues in the play about how often those who have been continually victimized and whose history is besieged with oppression and brutally so often in their liberation and redemption become the captors and the oppressors of others. Paul Essiembre is wonderful as the shrewdly perceptive Dominic De Villepin who refuses to allow diplomacy to grant the United States a UN supported free access pass into Iraq solely for its own ambitions and political agenda. Karen Robinson plays Condoleezza Rice as, primarily, George W. Bush’s translator, who acts like the White House’s referee and keeps her own opinions on all matters strictly to herself. She captures Rice’s poise and sense of propriety beautifully and is equally proficient in capturing her rare self-righteousness expressions of anger. Hardee T. Lineham plays a Dick Cheney who broods quietly throughout most of Act I and then seizes his moment, seemingly blinded by pure, dark visions of power dancing like machine gun wielding Sugar Plum Fairies across his consciousness. Lineham and David Fox (as Rumsfeld) have a chilling moment near the end of the play where all pretenses are thrown to the dogs and these two men speak candidly about their personal reasons for wanting to go to war in Iraq. Andrew Gillies captures Tony Blair’s tense nervous sense of decorum amid chaos fantastically in a portrait of a man whose pursuit of lofty humanitarian ideals ultimately proves the theory that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
David Fox is brilliant as Donald Rumsfeld, with absolutely perfect physicality and Fox captures his vocal quality with unbelievable precision. Michael Healy inhabits the role of George W. Bush so entirely, he becomes nearly unrecognizable. He has the former President’s vocal timbre down so perfectly, if you close your eyes you may be tricked into thinking that you are listening to a prerecorded presidential speech. Healey’s performance was also distinctly hysterical, both in the quotations that Hare chose to include in the play and in the actor’s flawless delivery. Stuff Happens is a play filled with some of the strongest personalities in recent history, and I could see that in different productions of this play different performances may stand out as being the “starring” role. In Toronto, the star is undeniably Nigel Shawn Williams as Colin Powell. Williams gives such an impassioned performance as a man torn between his moral instinct to do “the right thing” and his commitment to respect and dutifully obey the orders from his government. Williams has all of Powell’s dignity, his intelligence, his strength and his humanity and it is fascinating to contrast Williams’ Powell, who is so filled with emotions and feelings and genuine concern, with all his American colleagues who are dangerously devoid of them. Joel Greenberg directs the play with vivid creativity and the utmost precision. The production is clean, sharp and has all the professionalism of a tightly-run meeting in the boardroom.
Stuff Happens is a gripping play and for any one who opposed the Iraq invasion, who objected to the Bush Regime and the choices of the Republican Party of the United States of America, this play reaffirms the position that the choice to defeat Saddam Hussein and destabilize his country was not rooted in humanitarian efforts or directly linked to the 9-11 attacks. It turns Cheney and Rumsfeld into villains and makes fun of George W. Bush at every opportunity. While I found this fun, I also found myself asking if Hare’s play wasn’t a little bit *too* one-sided. Yet, as much as I deliberate on the issue, I am at a loss for what exhibition of virtue Hare could have injected into his Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush to make them more complex and sympathetic. The one complex issue that this play raised for me was one that I had not previously encountered: should the United Nations have supported America’s invasion of Iraq, not because it agreed with the mission, but because with the support of the rest of the Western World, the Iraqi people may have been better provided for throughout the insurgency. This question has percolated in my mind since last evening and remains one for which I do not have an answer.
There is a monologue near the beginning of the play in which a frustrated journalist (played by Essiembre) rants that we are so “Western” in our need to debate and to intellectualize the methods of every political decision. Stuff Happens is an incredibly “Western” play, but it is one that seems to suggest its own limitations, its own bias and one that refuses to accept the rhetoric that was created to sell a war, to mobilize an army and to invade a country which has killed between 94,349 and 102,949 innocent Iraqis. The curtain may have fallen on Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and Blair; may it, like in Hare’s play, now rise on Iraq and the country’s need for relief from the devastating consequences of America’s “War on Terror.”
Stuff Happens plays at the Royal Alexandra Theatre until December 23rd. Call 416.872.1212 or visit www.mirvish.com for tickets and more information. For Discounts use the following codes: $25 Equity tickets with the code EQUITY and 25% off for all with code STUFF25.
