Did Critics Get Caught Up in Hare's Stuff?

David Hare's Stuff Happens, which centers on the war in Iraq and features real political heavyweights as characters, is probably the most controversial play to open in London in a while. Media outlets were so eager to get a peak at the piece that a few newspapers sent in reporters to comment on early previews. Now the production, directed by Nicholas Hytner, has officially opened, having bowed at the National Theatre's Olivier Theatre on October 10. Did critics think it is worth the hype?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Benedict Nightingale of The London Times: "If you believe that far-sighted statesmen launched a just and prudent war in Iraq, deterring the world's terrorists as a happy by-product, David Hare's new play may anger you. The dramatist has had the gall to raise serious doubts about the wisdom and honesty of both the coalition's leaders. If you take a different view of recent events, you may appreciate a play, which strikes me as hard-hitting yet balanced enough to acknowledge, say, Tony Blair's desperate attempts to legitimise a dubiously legitimate war… Joe Morton's [Colin] Powell is Hare's hero, avid as he is to avoid a war he feels is morally unjustified and politically foolish, but the perhaps unintended effect of his articulate passion is to leave us wondering why he didn't have the consistency to resign. Wondering, too, about the accuracy and therefore the authority of a play whose author admits that he's 'used my imagination' to fill in the bits not on public record. And yet I often felt: yes, this is how it was."

Nicholas de Jongh of The Evening Standard: "Theatrical history is made with David Hare's riveting political documentary, a lucid scrutiny of flimsy motives and dodgy politicians, for which Nicholas Hytner organises a beautifully staged and acted production. From 1737 and until 1968 censorship of the stage outlawed political plays. It has taken until 2004 for any major theatre to present a serious play that grapples with contemporary political issues and puts genuine or imagined speeches into politicians' mouths. Hare's script is a fascinating compound of politicians' actual words, together with psychologically astute character-portraiture."

Michael Billington of The Guardian: "David Hare's Stuff Happens has already become a chewed-over public event. But, after attending its Olivier press night, it also strikes me as a very good, totally compelling play: one that may not contain a vast amount of new information but that traces the origins of the Iraq war, puts it in perspective and at the same time astutely analyses the American body politic… Hare, in fact, constantly creates a form of internal dialectic. The play ruthlessly exposes the dubious premises on which the war was fought. At the same time, it questions our complacency by reminding us of the pro-war arguments… The great surprise of the show, however, is the way performance leads to reassessment of character. Bush, in many British eyes, is seen as some kind of holy fool or worse. But, through Hare's writing and Alex Jennings's performance, he emerges as a wily and skillful manipulator who plays the role of a bumbling pseudo-Texan but constantly achieves his desired ends… By contrast, Tony Blair is seen satirically."

Charles Spencer of The Telegraph: "Stuff Happens gets my vote. This is a masterly piece of work--illuminating, gripping, wildly funny and ultimately desperately sad, and proof that when it comes to urgent public debate there is no forum to match the theatre at its best… It has long struck me that David Hare is a good playwright and a great journalist and so it proves again here. He marshals his material with extraordinary clarity, develops complex arguments so that even a political lame-brain like me can follow them, and out of a diffuse mass of material creates a work that is shapely, elegant and dramatically welcoming."

Kate Bassett of The Independent: "This production is well worth seeing, not staggering perhaps but always absorbing, with intriguing subplots including secret double-dealing by the French over the second UN resolution. However, I do have cavils. Some characters are less three-dimensional than others. Nicholas Farrell's flailing, snappy Blair too often seems like a comic caricature next to Jennings's subtler performance… Colin Powell is superbly played by Joe Morton and his impassioned speeches are riveting, but his rectitude is probably a tad idealised to up the dramatic contrast with his horribly aggressive colleagues. And ultimately, one also has to be wary of political theatre."