2008 Woodie Awards
The Right "Stuff," the Wrong War
Longtime Artistic Director Gordon Davidson's farewell is a maddening indictment of the Bush administration's march to war in Iraq.
Michael Ordoña
Issue date: 5/25/05 Section: Valley Life
- Page 1 of 1
**** (out of five stars)
What topic for current theatre could be more dramatic, bewildering and horrifying than the inexorable march to war in Iraq?
Most Americans, whatever their political affiliation, have to wonder how in the world the most powerful nation on Earth got bogged down in that murky abbatoir. Renowned British playwright David Hare ("Plenty," "Skylight") offers his theories, based largely on news accounts and actual quotes, in the blistering English hit, "Stuff Happens."
The title comes from an infamous quote by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in response to the looting of Baghdad, but in Hare's view, those words exemplify the casual disregard for human life and international law displayed by the administration's foreign policy. The powers that be come to vivid life as they decide implacably on death.
Receiving its American premiere at the Mark Taper Forum after a spectacularly successful run in Britain, "Stuff Happens" is a painstakingly researched account of the public statements and speculation of the private machinations that led to the invasion of Iraq. Hare is careful to note in the program that his play is a drama, not a documentary, but that there is nothing in it that he knows to be false.
Which is very bad news.
The picture he paints of the decision-making process of the most powerful government in the history of man is, at best, bleak. If half of the attitudes of the major players he depicts are accurate, then the country - and the world - is in big trouble. Watching the seemingly predestined turns down the path to mayhem is like watching a slow-motion avalanche you can't escape.
As the script is culled largely from actual quotes, the convention of direct address is used to alert the audience to verbatim language. The scenes behind closed doors are imagined by the playwright to fill in the gaps between recorded actions and statements.
Hare casts Bush and company as unstoppable crusaders moving toward a war that they will do anything to justify. Among the president's cabinet, only then-Secretary of State Colin Powell seems committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the largely imaginary but catalyzing problem of Iraq; Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz lustfully crank the machinery; then-National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice seems to work both sides; while Bush himself cryptically refers to his holy mandate as he casually turns the steering wheel.
Along the way, actors break the action to deliver "viewpoint" monologues, offering the wisdom of the man on the street. Without becoming preachy, "Stuff Happens" maddeningly details the confusion and obsession that led us to where we are now.
The Mark Taper Forum's production (the final production of director and Taper Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson's storied tenure) is truly an ensemble effort, boasting an unusually deep and talented cast in even the relatively minor roles.
The 12 cast members play some 96 parts. Broadway veteran John Vickery ("The Lion King" and many others) is droll as Tony Blair's foreign policy advisor and memorably delivers a viewpoint monologue as a British tourist bewildered by American nationalism in the face of the coming war. Tony-winner Stephen Spinella delights and annoys as a treacherous French diplomat unwholesomely eager to stand up to American power and Henry Brown doesn't get enough stage time for his dead-on Kofi Annan impersonation.
As the more recognizable figures, the Taper cast has uneven success. Film and TV star Keith Carradine's Bush is a bit bland - due perhaps to a flaw in Hare's script. Hare chillingly highlights Bush's religious rants along the way, but strangely, in a play that takes many firm stands on who was doing what and when, primary figure Bush comes across as something of a cipher. It's unclear how much of the policy was designed by the president, or who truly had his ear. And his crucially important decision-making process remains veiled.
Lorraine Toussaint captures the ice princess persona of Rice and Kip Gilman and Dakin Matthews are vividly unpleasant as Wolfowitz and Cheney, respectively. John Michael Higgins, best known for his appearances in Christopher Guest's film mockumentaries, absolutely nails Rumsfeld, going the furthest of the actors to mimic his character's vocal and physical inflections. Like the real "Rummy," Higgins gets all the best lines, gleefully marrying a brutal wit with a savage disregard for any opposed to the Bush agenda. These figures interlock to manifest a giant terminator grinding toward war with the confidence of a hard-wired robot.
Meanwhile, heroes in the piece are hard to find.
U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix comes across as uncorrupted but ineffectual and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (played here with possibly intentional impotence by film star Julian Sands) is represented as idealistic to the point of naïveté. In Hare's view, Blair has real hopes for the genuinely humanitarian use of military power; Hopes which are savagely dashed by the bull-in-a-China shop diplomacy of the Americans. Ordinary people in the viewpoints monologues have their say, but like Blix, aren't in position to do anything about their objections.
The most complex and sympathetic character is Powell, imagined here as a tragic hero - a real statesman and patriot who valiantly fights a losing battle against the neocon hawks bent on invasion. Hare gives Powell the most impassioned, rabble-rousing moments as he struggles to find a middle way, while the audience knows his mission is doomed from the start.
This much gibes with the general wisdom concerning the retired general's struggles with the neocons in the cabinet (none of whom actually served in the military themselves). However, the playwright again fails to take a position on the most important question regarding Powell: Why did this supposedly honorable man suddenly acquiesce and try to sell the case for war to the U.N. with what he knew to be jerry-rigged intelligence?
That character arc isn't helped by Tyrees Allen's one-note performance. Despite Allen's numerous theatrical credits, he shouts his way through the play, possibly overcompensating for the not-so-cavernous space of the Forum. His lack of vocal and emotional modulation defuse what could be a potent dramatic charge to drive the action to its tragic conclusion (in a similar way, but to a far, far lesser degree, than Hayden Christensen's unconscionably bad performances devastated the last two "Star Wars" movies). Still, Powell emerges as the most intriguing persona in the play, a real crowd-pleaser.
"Stuff Happens" is a frequently infuriating re-examination of a defining moment in American history; the point at which the country bought into the notion of pre-emptive war in the name of 9/11. Vickery's viewpoint monologue describes the U.S. citizens' basic explanation to the rest of the world: "You wouldn't understand; you're not American."
And the final viewpoint monologue lays the responsibility for the horrid destruction of the war at the feet of those American citizens - as an Iraqi expatriate blames his own people for the rise of Saddam: "[Iraq] failed to take charge of itself. And that meant the worst person in the country took charge. Until this nation takes charge of itself, it will continue to suffer." The unspoken American analog hangs heavily in the air.
Hare's play will undoubtedly spark strong reactions from across the political spectrum, but to stateside audiences it's a hard, close look that's long overdue. Davidson's taut, engaging production also serves as a grand curtain-dropper on a storied chapter of Los Angeles theatrical history.
********************************
"Stuff Happens" - a new play by David Hare; Directed by Gordon Davidson. At the Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Through July 17. For tickets and information call (213) 628-2772 or go to www.MarkTaperForum.org.
What topic for current theatre could be more dramatic, bewildering and horrifying than the inexorable march to war in Iraq?
 Media Credit: Craig Schwartz / Mark Taper Forum MEETING OF THE MIND - Julian Sands (l) as Prime Minister Tony Blair and Keith Carradine as President George W. Bush in the American premiere of "Stuff Happens" at the Mark Taper Forum. |
The title comes from an infamous quote by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in response to the looting of Baghdad, but in Hare's view, those words exemplify the casual disregard for human life and international law displayed by the administration's foreign policy. The powers that be come to vivid life as they decide implacably on death.
Receiving its American premiere at the Mark Taper Forum after a spectacularly successful run in Britain, "Stuff Happens" is a painstakingly researched account of the public statements and speculation of the private machinations that led to the invasion of Iraq. Hare is careful to note in the program that his play is a drama, not a documentary, but that there is nothing in it that he knows to be false.
Which is very bad news.
The picture he paints of the decision-making process of the most powerful government in the history of man is, at best, bleak. If half of the attitudes of the major players he depicts are accurate, then the country - and the world - is in big trouble. Watching the seemingly predestined turns down the path to mayhem is like watching a slow-motion avalanche you can't escape.
As the script is culled largely from actual quotes, the convention of direct address is used to alert the audience to verbatim language. The scenes behind closed doors are imagined by the playwright to fill in the gaps between recorded actions and statements.
Hare casts Bush and company as unstoppable crusaders moving toward a war that they will do anything to justify. Among the president's cabinet, only then-Secretary of State Colin Powell seems committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the largely imaginary but catalyzing problem of Iraq; Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz lustfully crank the machinery; then-National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice seems to work both sides; while Bush himself cryptically refers to his holy mandate as he casually turns the steering wheel.
Along the way, actors break the action to deliver "viewpoint" monologues, offering the wisdom of the man on the street. Without becoming preachy, "Stuff Happens" maddeningly details the confusion and obsession that led us to where we are now.
The Mark Taper Forum's production (the final production of director and Taper Founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson's storied tenure) is truly an ensemble effort, boasting an unusually deep and talented cast in even the relatively minor roles.
The 12 cast members play some 96 parts. Broadway veteran John Vickery ("The Lion King" and many others) is droll as Tony Blair's foreign policy advisor and memorably delivers a viewpoint monologue as a British tourist bewildered by American nationalism in the face of the coming war. Tony-winner Stephen Spinella delights and annoys as a treacherous French diplomat unwholesomely eager to stand up to American power and Henry Brown doesn't get enough stage time for his dead-on Kofi Annan impersonation.
As the more recognizable figures, the Taper cast has uneven success. Film and TV star Keith Carradine's Bush is a bit bland - due perhaps to a flaw in Hare's script. Hare chillingly highlights Bush's religious rants along the way, but strangely, in a play that takes many firm stands on who was doing what and when, primary figure Bush comes across as something of a cipher. It's unclear how much of the policy was designed by the president, or who truly had his ear. And his crucially important decision-making process remains veiled.
Lorraine Toussaint captures the ice princess persona of Rice and Kip Gilman and Dakin Matthews are vividly unpleasant as Wolfowitz and Cheney, respectively. John Michael Higgins, best known for his appearances in Christopher Guest's film mockumentaries, absolutely nails Rumsfeld, going the furthest of the actors to mimic his character's vocal and physical inflections. Like the real "Rummy," Higgins gets all the best lines, gleefully marrying a brutal wit with a savage disregard for any opposed to the Bush agenda. These figures interlock to manifest a giant terminator grinding toward war with the confidence of a hard-wired robot.
Meanwhile, heroes in the piece are hard to find.
U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix comes across as uncorrupted but ineffectual and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (played here with possibly intentional impotence by film star Julian Sands) is represented as idealistic to the point of naïveté. In Hare's view, Blair has real hopes for the genuinely humanitarian use of military power; Hopes which are savagely dashed by the bull-in-a-China shop diplomacy of the Americans. Ordinary people in the viewpoints monologues have their say, but like Blix, aren't in position to do anything about their objections.
The most complex and sympathetic character is Powell, imagined here as a tragic hero - a real statesman and patriot who valiantly fights a losing battle against the neocon hawks bent on invasion. Hare gives Powell the most impassioned, rabble-rousing moments as he struggles to find a middle way, while the audience knows his mission is doomed from the start.
 Media Credit: Craig Schwartz / Mark Taper Forum HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO - Lorraine Toussaint as Condoleeza Rice and Tyrees Allen as Colin Powell, the closest thing to a hero in David Hare´s play. [Click to enlarge] |
That character arc isn't helped by Tyrees Allen's one-note performance. Despite Allen's numerous theatrical credits, he shouts his way through the play, possibly overcompensating for the not-so-cavernous space of the Forum. His lack of vocal and emotional modulation defuse what could be a potent dramatic charge to drive the action to its tragic conclusion (in a similar way, but to a far, far lesser degree, than Hayden Christensen's unconscionably bad performances devastated the last two "Star Wars" movies). Still, Powell emerges as the most intriguing persona in the play, a real crowd-pleaser.
"Stuff Happens" is a frequently infuriating re-examination of a defining moment in American history; the point at which the country bought into the notion of pre-emptive war in the name of 9/11. Vickery's viewpoint monologue describes the U.S. citizens' basic explanation to the rest of the world: "You wouldn't understand; you're not American."
And the final viewpoint monologue lays the responsibility for the horrid destruction of the war at the feet of those American citizens - as an Iraqi expatriate blames his own people for the rise of Saddam: "[Iraq] failed to take charge of itself. And that meant the worst person in the country took charge. Until this nation takes charge of itself, it will continue to suffer." The unspoken American analog hangs heavily in the air.
Hare's play will undoubtedly spark strong reactions from across the political spectrum, but to stateside audiences it's a hard, close look that's long overdue. Davidson's taut, engaging production also serves as a grand curtain-dropper on a storied chapter of Los Angeles theatrical history.
********************************
"Stuff Happens" - a new play by David Hare; Directed by Gordon Davidson. At the Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. Through July 17. For tickets and information call (213) 628-2772 or go to www.MarkTaperForum.org.
