Stuff Happens

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For the American TV show, see Stuff Happens (TV show). For the common slang phrase, see Shit happens.

Spearheaded by Marie Kondo, an army of organisers, declutterers and life-sorters have sold millions (and millions) of books which purport to unleash the minimalist within. Yet for all the practical guides on how to strategise clearouts and win against the battle of stuff, few manuals truly get to the root of the matter. However, the pleasure lies in seeing recent history, in which we all have a stake, enacted on Britain's most prominent public stage. Nicholas Hytner's production is also elegant and unfussy, with the cast seated on stage throughout and emerging, as required, to enact their part in the drama. And, in a vast cast, there are standout performances from Desmond Barrit as an ideologically-driven Cheney, Dermot Crowley as an assertive Rumsfeld, and Adjoa Andoh as an ice-cold Condoleezza Rice. Scene 6: Hare describes how the events of 9/11 happen. He gives the exact times the planes crashed into the twin towers and the Pentagon. It is also explained that the 4th plane was meant to hit the White House but the passengers were able to prevent that from happening. This is what started the War on Terror between "the free and democratic world and terrorism." [2]

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But in terms of what's going on in that country, it is a fundamental misunderstanding to see those images over and over and over again of some buy walking out with a vase and say, 'Oh, my goodness, you didn't have a plan.' Conniving president Bush is clearly the bad guy, while Tony Blair is given perhaps more credit than he is due (and certainly shown to repeatedly be the victim of Bush's weasely maneuvers).

Hare's other key means of creating conflict is to view Colin Powell as a stern realist in a Bush war cabinet made up of deluded fantasists. In a big showdown with Bush, based on documented facts, Powell passionately presses the case for treating war as a last resort after diplomacy has been exhausted. In the play's best line, he points out the hypocrisy of American attitudes. "People keep asking," he says of Saddam, "how do we know he's got weapons of mass destruction? How do we know? Because we've still got the receipts." Stuff Happens had its world premiere at the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre in London on 1 September 2004 [2] and has subsequently been performed at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum (with Keith Carradine and Julian Sands) in June 2005 and at Sydney's Seymour Centre (with Rhys Muldoon and Greg Stone) in July 2005. Greg Stone won a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Play in 2006. He said he been speaking at a Pentagon press briefing when "I vented some annoyance by uttering a few ill-chosen words". The phrase "stuff happens" sounded callous. He says he had been thinking about the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King.

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Getting these small but niggly jobs done “makes such a difference”, notes Gleeson. “You’re not in a constant battle in your home. When you need the Sellotape, you know where it is. Your quality of life goes up.”