Tings Dey Happening
Tings Dey Happening is a one man performance by the playwright, Dan Hoyle, in the Culture Project’s SoHo; the performance is a play based on Nigeria’s oil politics.
Nigeria is infamous for its military coos and fighting. The income that Nigeria receives as a whole from oil is staggering. With that amount of income, Nigeria should be quite prosperous. However the whole country is practically left in poverty. According to BBC, the president of Nigeria takes all the money for himself and leaves none for the society. Old tribal groups fight with each other to try to rule the country and become rich. The government is the key player in the oil politics because whoever is in charge gets the contracts from the oil companies.
Dan Hoyle depicts Nigerian warlords, prostitutes, assassins, kidnappers, oil workers, and ambassadors in order to build the general theme that the oil companies are causing more damage than they are aiding. The audience becomes Dan, a Fulbright scholar who decides to interview Nigerians in order to help them. Dan Hoyle, the playwright, plays the role of the interviewed.
It is a shame however, that such a controversial play is so lackluster.
While Hoyle presents Nigeria in an adequately factual light, he renders the crowd weary with an appalling storyline. The only kudos that Dan Hoyle deserves is his exceptional ability to perform so many characters. However, the one man performance is more of a hindrance than it is of a help. While it can’t be denied that one man playing so many roles is indeed impressive; the characters however, are portrayed as analogous.
A one man performance doesn’t accentuate the importance of each character and their respective hardships. Hoyle also uses a very thick and somewhat erroneous Nigerian accent. A Caucasian shouldn’t be performing in a play where a Nigerian would be ideal for. The accent can be called “genuine” by Americans, but Nigerians use a very different accent. Having known Nigerians, I can call Hoyle a fraud and a dreadful narrator.
The stage is entirely black and beaten. There is a chest, a table, and a chair. The audience is very close to the stage and in such a small auditorium, Hoyle’s voice can be heard throughout. The play is about two hours with no intermission.
The culture project of SoHo is located on 55 Mercer St. It can be reached by taking the 6 subway or the R and W subway lines.