Stuff Happens...

Stuff Happens is an angry, potent, fast piece of theatre that convincingly explores the players and events leading up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by US forces.

Key players in this David Hare-penned piece are Presidents, Prime Ministers, and other politicos whose influence, motives, personality, and histories all intertwine to give a theoretical look into the highest halls of power.

Barry Flatman gives a wonderfully convincing portrait of George W. Bush, playing him as a man who glibly gallops around world politics while never immersing himself in any one thing. So long as he can go back to the ranch, sing, barbeque, and do puzzles, he's happy.

Yanna MacIntosh is a wonderfully slinky Condoleeza Rice, playing up those elegant-but-not-quite-trustworthy qualities the general public has come to know her for. David Fox is crusty, angry, and perfectly out-of-touch as Donald Rumsfeld, portraying him as a fossil well past his expiry date. As General Colin Powell, Nigel Shawn Williams gives us a man who is at odds with his conscience, his past, his present, his country and his President. His interactions within and without the halls of power allows for much of the dramatic tension and fascinating characterization of the piece to shine through.

The casting of Stuff Happens (the title taken from one of Rumsfeld's famous speeches on Iraq) couldn't be more perfect, with Andrew Gillies giving a standout performance as a frustrated, floundering Tony Blair; here is a man who knows he could lose the support of his country and Parliament, and yet desperately wants to believe he is doing the right thing.

Joel Greenberg's direction is sharp and angular, as simple, clean, and efficient as a corporate executive -and the image carries through, as each cast member is dressed, for the most part, in grey uniforms of suits, ties, skirts and jackets. Many with rotating roles (Sarah Orenstein as Joyce Rumsfeld, a suffering Palestinian,a Journalist, and a narrator, for instance) need only a shawl and/or a shift in body language, lighting, and accent to convey a myriad of emotions and experiences.

Stuff Happens may be Hare's angry polemic on the insanity of the War of Terror, but for Studio 180, the company producing this current piece, it is also a tour-de-force of fantastic acting and sharp directing coming together.

If you love your theatre on the emotional, sentimental side, you might find this isn't for you.

If, however, smart, challenging theatre that explores the historical and political contexts of the time is your thing, run -don't walk -to see Stuff Happens.

Stuff Happens is playing at The Berkeley Street Theatre (Downstairs) now through March 29th.

For more information, to go www.stuffhappens.ca