Apr 4, 2008

Bay Area hit 'Tings' returns

By John Angell Grant / Theater Reviewer

It doesn't sound like a great idea for a play, but it is. It won a prestigious award, and it's back in town.

Dan Hoyle's "Tings Dey Happen," a hilarious and riveting one-man show about Nigerian oil politics, is based on his experiences as a Fulbright scholar in Nigeria. Hoyle is a native San Franciscan, and the son of actor and former Pickle Circus clown Geoff Hoyle.

"Tings Dey Happen" was a big hit in San Francisco last year when it had its world premiere at The Marsh, one of the most important theater incubators in the country. Later "Tings" migrated to New York for a successful run, and has now returned to the Bay Area for a reprise. Earlier this year, "Tings" won the Will Glickman Award for best new Bay Area play of 2007.

"Tings Dey Happen" is based on interviews Hoyle did during his Fulbright stint with dozens of Nigerians and foreigners living in Nigeria. Onstage he performs an entertaining and fast-paced show of multiple parts and voices, in a wide array of characters.

Hoyle never plays himself, but only others who are talking to him. Many characters are ordinary Nigerians who explain the complex history of Nigerian oil politics.

Others include a political assassin who dreams of getting a college education, westerners drinking in the Young Diplomats Club in Lagos, a Serbian diplomat who greases small arms sales to West African countries, and various cynical American and European oil company workers and managers.

Hoyle also portrays a village chief who became an in-demand media celebrity when CNN called him a warlord, as well as the American ambassador to Nigeria, a foppish California human rights activist and a couple of prostitutes.

Scene locations include various bars, meeting rooms and villages in Nigeria. Lurking in the air is a sense of unstable anarchy and the threat of violence.

Nigeria is a country of 250 tribes jockeying for power. According to some, it had a moment in the economic sun, but did not adjust successfully to the ups and downs of an economy based mostly on oil.

Although Nigeria produces three million barrels of oil a day, few people have jobs. There is a high level of poverty.

Hoyle delivers a very good performance in a wide array of distinct characters and voices, in a fast-paced show. Frequently there is humor in quick conversations bantered back and forth among multiple people, as Hoyle jumps from character to character.

Most speak in Nigerian pidgin English. The people are playful and have a good sense of humor, despite the direness of their economic and social situations.

Also weighing in are the occasional Brit, Irishman, Scot or Texan, working for various oil companies, and American and European diplomats. Hoyle crams a ton of information into his story, and still manages to make the play personal, funny and hypnotic.

The story of Nigeria is a complex one. In many ways it's the apocryphal story of a former village economy struggling to find a workable transition into the global industrial age. In Nigeria there is little connection between old and new cultures.

Oil money hasn't found a way to help most people, who live in dispossessed poverty. The fishing economy has been destroyed. There's a sorrowful lack of infrastructure to help the average Nigerian.

Although it seems like there should be enough wealth to go around in Nigeria, it doesn't happen. In some ways "Tings Dey Happen" is the age-old story of people fighting over money, with a few fat cats on top.

Hoyle reminds us of the painful fact that in the 21st century we now have the capacity as citizens of planet Earth to destroy ourselves if we can't find a way to help each other and live in harmony.

Rating: Four stars

E-mail John Angell Grant at jagplays@yahoo.com.