Lost In Dictation? Eh, Tings Dey Happen!
New York, NY, Sept. 13 – Nigerian political corruption is simply endless, spurred on by the lust for oil. The importance of this subject is great, but the world just doesn’t know enough about it. Out of the heart of SoHo from July to late October 2007 comes Tings Dey Happen, a theatrical performance of miniscule size and multifaceted meaning. Written and performed by the ever so talented Dan Hoyle, Tings Dey Happen is a performing masterpiece, but a disaster in execution.
The play is a novel interpretation of the one-man show. Set in a vacuous sea of midnight black, Hoyle, the sole actor, attempts to take on the roles of one too many characters in this political docudrama. This performance casts you, the viewer, as the playwright himself, Fulbright scholar and oil politics student, Dan Hoyle. This feature allows you see what the Niger Delta is really like. Throughout the show, I was constantly afflicted with the task of deciphering subtleties of shifting points of view and comprehending convoluted language through Hoyle’s newly developed weighty West African accent. Humor abounds for the first quarter of this ninety-minute play, but tapers off at an alarming rate equal to that of your attention span. Maybe it is the fault of director Charlie Varon for not taming the exuberance of Hoyle’s creativity, which ends up leaving you disinterested regardless. That is a feat in itself when the play is festooned with horridly overdone swearing, promiscuous prostitutes and egotistical warlords.
Aside from these complaints, there are positive elements to this play. Hoyle’s acting is first rate, as he successfully, albeit bewilderingly, adapts his accent, tone of voice, and gestures to parallel the particular character he is playing that moment. As a playwright, he balances the piece between objective opinion and legitimate fact, creating a realistic foundation for a rather well written play. It is not difficult to recognize that the prevailing point of view bestows sympathy upon the Nigerian people, a culture being taken advantage of by massive oil companies, with little money filtering down to the poorest of such inhabitants.
The play leaves me feeling slightly frustrated with the pettiness of selfish greed, but unfortunately more so with the loss of an opportunity to make a bigger statement to the world. I feel as if, while watching the presentation, I got so caught up with the humor of a single Caucasian male taking on the roles of everyone from a nut-interested Japanese diplomat to a Nigerian prostitute, that I lost the perception of the emotional impact of the oppression altogether. I wish there was some sort of scene background to complement the unique actors and actresses I desired to behold. I wanted to be enraptured by human emotion and brought to my knees in grief for the maltreatment of the Nigerian people. Instead, I was distracted by the unusual usage of exterior and interior monologue all by one individual. In the end, Tings Dey Happen was simply a good idea lost in a confounding mess of creativity.