Sunday, November 15, 2009
Dan Hoyle’s ‘Tings Dey Happen,’ About Nigerian Oil Politics
NYTimes.com: "Many things have happened since Dan Hoyle performed in the premiere of “Tings Dey Happen,” his incendiary and brilliant solo show about Nigerian oil politics, nearly three years ago at the compact theater the Marsh in San Francisco."
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2 comments:
This seems like a fascinating piece of theater. It must have taken so much research and practice to develop each character and personality, but what a worthwhile cause. After reading article after article about some huge budget broadway show full of fluff failing, one gets a bit frustrated with theater. But when art like this can be created, its so obvious why theater is important to culture. So much can be communicated, so many stories need to be told, and all that is left to do is choose what is important to do, and not what is just another overdone, moneymaker show.
Looking at the phonetics of the title my first thought was of Carlotta's lines in Phantom of the Opera. Captured as they were by Minnie Driver in the most recent film the phonetics are nearly identical. The Phrase itself invites cyniscism. 'Things dey happen' suggests that events occur frivolously and without meaning. Horrible disasters do happen, and this title implies there is often no reason. What I think this play shows is that events may occur despite all intentions, but there is a cause even if it is unforeseeable. Life is a series of reactions and equal and opposite reactions as physics would tell us, it's just that connections may seem hard to find.
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