[Mb-civic] STUFF HAPPENS

[Mary Louise smn]

Michael.....Thank you.........impressive review........ Marylouise

>From: Michael Butler <michael at michaelbutler.com>
>Reply-To: mb-civic at islandlists.com
>To: SPECIAL from Michael Butler <michael at michaelbutler.com>
>Subject: [Mb-civic] STUFF HAPPENS
>Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 11:57:21 -0700
>
>STUFF HAPPENS
>
>Yesterday I saw the final performance of STUFF HAPPENS by David Hare. 
>Gordon
>Davidson directed this American Premiere, starring Keith Carradine
>
>It was a triple-header for me. The subject referred to the famous words,
>³stuff happens² uttered by our Secretary of Defense (original named War by
>our founding fathers). Donald Rumsfeld was referring to press queries about
>the trashing of Baghdad. The wholesale destruction of great portions of the
>city. Demolished in particular were sites of great cultural importance to
>the world. Libraries and museums wiped out at the site of the world¹s 
>oldest
>civilizations. Nothing so devastating had happened there since the Mongols
>centuries ago. So our SOD said, ³stuff happens².
>
>The super British playwright David Hare wrote this play. It opened last 
>year
>in London. It has an important slant of Britain¹s Tony Blair¹s involvement
>with glancing references to the ŒDowning Street Papers¹ so recently
>sidetracked in the US by the Rovegate scandals. It is a shame as those
>revelations are of critical importance to knowledge of how the people of 
>the
>US and UK were set up for the invasion of Iraq.
>
>I was really interested to see what the great Gordon Davidson was going to
>present as his final directorial effort for the Center Theatre group at the
>Mark Taper Forum. Davidson¹s tenure at the Taper has been as long as the
>history of HAIR. I have had the opportunity of watching the wonderful work
>of this theatrical icon during my period of producing. I have had such
>respect for his pushing the envelope.
>So rather than a classic Shakespeare, he presented a classic tragedy of
>today¹s hubris.
>
>Thirdly, I had the pleasure of seeing Keith Carradine perform as President
>George W. Bush. I wanted to see Keith handle such a difficult role. We were
>together in HAIR. I had seen him in many other roles since and have great
>respect for his work. Once again he did a superb job, alternating between
>the Bush machismo, which impressed so many and the Bush arrogance dismayed
>by the most.
>
>So what can I tell you about STUFF HAPPENS? I am not a critic and don¹t 
>know
>quite how to put to words what I saw. It is a great theatre piece, long in
>time but short in space. One wanted to hear every word as so much was said.
>The design (Ming Cho Lee) was very appropriate to the piece. You felt like
>you were witnessing history being made. Great work was done by others
>playing Cheney (Dakin Matthews), Rice (Lorraine Toussaint) and Rumsfeld
>(John Michael Higgins). Blair (Julian Sands) and Wolfowitz (Kip Gilman) 
>were
>portrayed. Powell (Tyrees Allen) was outstanding. Not to forget de Villepin
>(Stephen Spinella), and thanks to the Producer Ann E. Wareham.
>
>My greatest regret is that this piece is not going to tour over the 
>country.
>
>To aid your insight I have scanned and attach the pertinent segments of 
>text
>from the playbill. STUFF HAPPENS is a history lesson in and of itself, 
>which
>you will find interesting. For those who cannot download the attachment I 
>am
>going to ask Nina Dayton, Archivist of HAIR to put it on the site.
>http://www.michaelbutler.com/files/STUFFHAPPENS.PDF
>
>
>
><< STUFFHAPPENSnotes.PDF >>
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