Tings Dey Happen

Culture Project

I find that I was born with only one face--the same one I wake up to every morning in the mirror. Dan Hoyle has so many faces and portrays so many personalities in Tings Dey Happen that it is absolutely impossible to tell exactly what he looks like or what he is like in all of these Nigerian personalities. This is a one-man show about one man's experience in Nigeria a few years ago as a Fulbright scholar. The irony is that in this one-man show the man becomes invisible in encounters with many different people who answer his many questions about his practical, scholarly topic of oil and politics in Nigeria.

The dialect was overwhelming, thick and often difficult to understand, but Hoyle's mastery of the dialect served a point and helped take us on our journey into Nigeria. When I look back on this evening, I will remember the dialect, the big gestures, the malleable face and a look at this particular African country. I won't remember being entertained or a grand story. This is a show about experience, not about story. Had it been about story, it might have been great. Without an absolutely compelling story, it was average. Albeit, this was smart, honest and experiential.

We want to have emotional reactions to the characters on stage. We nearly got there in one man, a sniper, who is killing people for money so that he can one day go to university. He is hospitable to the narrator in a truly touching way. He is morally conflicted and introspective about what he does for a living. He has hope for the next generation, even as he reconciles himself with his reality at the end of the show. He is the most complex and fleshed out character of the evening, and it was a great disappointment that his story ended so quickly and that he did not manage to have the last word.

In addition to story, this may have lacked excellent questions and truly lacked answers. It was a topic more than it was an in-depth exploration of a country or a Nigerian identity. The topic, as stated above, was oil and politics in Nigeria. This was a grade B thesis of that topic.

I liked it, but would I recommend it? I can't think of anyone who needs to see it. I have friends who have spent a good deal of time in Africa. I don't know if this would be right for them. For my political friends, I don't think it is American enough. It plays to liberal guilt, but doesn't indict. Wait, I have it--this is for anyone who finds an evening where you want to go to a bar or party because you want to hear a stranger tell you something you haven't heard, about a place you've never been where you might never go, but that will educate you and interest you enough for a drink or two. So, if you find yourself without a bar or party one night, drop on by. More than anything, I kept thinking that I wanted to buy this guy a drink because I did want to keep him talking about his motivations and his experience in this country. At the very least, the show should whet your appetite for heavier Nigerian fare with a side of mosquito.