Stuff Happens

June 8th, 2005
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
Play, we went with Troy

starring:Keith Carradine (Pres. Bush) John Michael Higgins (Donald Rumsfeld) Julian Sands (Pr. Minister Tony Blair)Lorraine Toussaint (Condoleezza Rice) Dakin Matthews (VP Dick Cheney) Jane Carr (1st Lady Laura Bush) Tyrees Allen (Colin Powell)...and 13 other cast members!

The Mark Taper Theatre's stage is a semi-round venue, and worked so well for when the play needed to recreate the senate, congress, U.N. and Oval Office. The play itself is a chronology of Pres. George W. (Keith Carradine) and the events that led up to the "war on terrorism." Sounds dull? It really wasn't!

Exceptional casting! The gamut of talent played French ambassadors and world dignitaries, as well as British cabinet members and imfamous Americans. The acting was impressive and solid. Embodying famous LIVING people cannot be an easy thing, but this cast made it look easy. The audience couldn't help laughing at Dakin Matthews (King of Queens, Gilmore Girls, Jack & Bobby) as Dick Cheney and John Michael Higgins (A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, Ally McBeal) as Donald Rumsfeld. So funny! In fact, although a serious play, the tone was leavened regularly with not only the unintensional humor of George W, but with everyone's reactions to him.

The play, written by accomplished Brit playwright David Hare, captured Bush and his cronies, as well as the way they are/were viewed abroad, using scenes of direct address and quoting rousing and surprising speeches verbatim, and when necessary some researched and insightful imagination for "behind closed doors."

I wish everyone could see this imporant and thought-provoking play.

"Stuff Happens" may make you openly boo, hiss, cheer or even cry, but it will also remind you of why this 2,500-year-old art form remains the best way for human beings to collectively experience and contemplate the effects of war." --James C. Taylor, LA Times