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STUFF HAPPENS by David Hare
March 2008
The Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs
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Canadian premiere
“Stuff happens… and it’s untidy, and freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.”
(Donald Rumsfeld, April 11, 2003, in response to widespread violence in Baghdad after the American invasion of Iraq)
Beginning in the first days of the Bush administration and following its march to war, Stuff Happens is a dramatic speculation, authenticated from multiple real-life sources, on the behind-closed-doors proceedings that have shaped recent world events.
Renowned playwright David Hare blends documented public-record information and theatrical invention to create a riveting drama that centres on still-living history.
Stuff Happens premiered in September 2004 at the National Theatre in London, England. New York’s Public Theater production ran from March through June 2006, and received a Drama Desk Award for best ensemble, as well as nominations for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Director of a Play.
In their year-end highlights for 2008, seven prominent writers from the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine and National Post listed Studio 180’s production of Stuff Happens among the top theatre productions of the year. We are looking forward to its return this November/December as part of Mirvish Productions’ 2009/10 season, this time at the Royal Alexandra Theatre!
DIRECTED BY Joel Greenberg
FEATURING Guy Bannerman, Ian D. Clark, Paul Essiembre, Barry Flatman, Neil Foster, David Fox, Andrew Gillies, Deborah Grover, Michael Healey, Sam Kalilieh, Hardee T. Lineham, Mark McGrinder, Yanna McIntosh, Sarah Orenstein & Nigel Shawn Williams
STAGE MANAGER Robert Harding
SET & COSTUME DESIGN Michael Gianfrancesco
LIGHTING DESIGN Kimberly Purtell
SOUND DESIGN Michael Laird
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS Jessica Greenberg & Kimwun Perehinec
PRODUCED BY Joel Greenberg & Derrick Chua
STUFF HAPPENS by David Hare
“Frighteningly good Studio 180 production! Slashingly funny and unexpectedly touching! A company of 15 amazing actors, led with skill by director Joel Greenberg, offer[s] us a compelling story whose ending has not yet been written. You can’t afford to miss it.”
★★★★ TORONTO STAR
“Killer Canadian premiere! It is difficult to imagine a better production of this play! Director Joel Greenberg has staged the events leading from George W. Bush’s first inauguration to the 2003 Iraq invasion with such velocity that you must dig your fingernails into your armrest to hold on. 15 stellar actors […] keep this finely tuned machine running.”
GLOBE AND MAIL
“A thrilling peek behind the closed doors of the White House.”
680 NEWS
“Pretty powerful stuff! A compelling piece of theatre that charts the confrontation between men and women of conscience in the face of global crisis in a world where might has too long been mistaken for right.”
★★★★ TORONTO SUN
“The 15-member cast is superb, as is Joel Greenberg’s taut direction. This is a don’t-miss production.”
CLASSICAL 96
2008 end-of-year reviews
Listed among the top theatre productions of the year by
• Richard Ouzounian, TORONTO STAR
• Michael Posner, James Bradshaw and J. Kelly Nestruck, GLOBE AND MAIL
• Jon Kaplan and Glenn Sumi, NOW MAGAZINE
• Robert Cushman, NATIONAL POST
