by MARTHA KERAVUORI AND CHUCK GALLE at Triangle Arts and Entertainment
Stuff Happens, a 2004 West End, 2005 Los Angeles, and 2006 Off-Broadway play by Sir David Hare, now playing in Burning Coal Theatre Company’s Murphey School Auditorium in Raleigh, NC, gets its name from a comment made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during President George W. Bush’s first term. He referred to the after-battle rioting and looting that took place in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was ousted and a pent-up populace vented its repressed anger on the former regime.
Hare’s two hour and 20-minute play includes some 40 characters, most of whom are unnamed, but speak authoritatively, perhaps quoting news or government or historical reports of actions at the time.