Overview

On 11 April 2003, while Baghdad was being pillaged in the aftermath of invasion, Donald Rumsfield, the American Secretary of Defense, held a press conference at which he said, “Stuff happens… and it’s untidy, and freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.”

Stuff Happens, by David Hare and directed by Neil Armfield is an urgent and exhilarating ride from the Oval Office to the streets of Baghdad.

David Hare (My Zinc Bed, The Judas Kiss, Via Dolorosa) takes Rumsfeld’s comments as the starting point for his odyssey into the heart of the reasons for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Stuff Happens is both a gripping account of recent history, and an edge-of-your-seat human drama about the frustrations of leadership and the limits of diplomacy, as Hare delves into what really happened behind the closed doors of power.