Keith Carradine will play President Bush and Julian Sands will be Prime Minister Tony Blair in David Hare’s new play about the United States’ and Great Britain’s historic march to a preemptive war against Iraq, Stuff Happens.
Directed by Gordon Davidson, the American premiere of Stuff Happens will run May 25 through July 17, 2005, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum of the Los Angeles Music Center. Opening is set for June 5.
The 22-member cast of Stuff Happens also features Tyrees Allen, Henry Brown, Jane Carr, Mitchell Edmonds, Kip Gilman, James Handy, Jay Harik, John Michael Higgins, Brian George, James Gleason, Francis Guinan, Anna Khaja, John Rafter Lee, Dakin Matthews, Paul Messinger, Alan Oppenheimer, Stephen Spinella, Lorraine Toussaint, Inger Tudor and John Vickery portraying nearly 100 characters including Vice President Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz and dozens of other politicians and world leaders who give voice to the ideas, policies and events that have changed the world and America’s role in it
The scenic design for Stuff Happens is by Ming Cho Lee with costume design by Candice Cain, lighting design by Christopher Akerlind, sound design by Jon Gottlieb and casting by Amy Lieberman, CSA. The production stage manager is Mary Michele Miner.
Stuff Happens, which combines durect quotes and imagined dialogue, is an exploration into one of the most polarizing events of our time, detailing why and how Bush, his advisors and his allies came to declare war on Iraq and remove the tyrannical Saddam Hussein from power. The play traces key events from early 2001, only 10 days after Bush’s inauguration, when Iraq was first mentioned as part of Bush’s agenda, through his “Mission Accomplished” tailhook landing onto the aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego.Tickets for Stuff Happens are available by calling (213) 628-2772, online at www.MarkTaperForum.org or at the Center Theatre Group box office at the Music Center.
