Stuff Happens

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They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things, and that's what's going to happen there. I’ve gone from the woman living in clutter, hanging on to make-up samples and clothes that didn’t fit me,” she says. “Books are my total Kryptonite. But I have lived and gone through that process.” 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." Yet beyond its inspired premise, and the crisp aplomb of Sullivan’s production, Stuff Happens is a catalogue of disappointments. Hare wanted to show how Bush decided to invade Iraq and why Blair chose to follow him. Except for a few last-minute addenda, that means the story stops three years ago, before Abu Ghraib, Plamegate, and the other calamities of the occupation. The play’s action has been, as they say, overtaken by events.

As a reformed hoarder turned professional declutterer, Emma Gleeson knows how easy it is to be overwhelmed by stuff. Stuff Happens! is her life-changing guide to getting a handle on your stuff and reclaiming your peace of mind. It contains a brimful of practical advice on . . . In Hare's terms, and in Joe Morton's performance, Powell emerges as a tragic figure: the one key player in the administration who sees the folly of invasion but who, in a climactic encounter with Bush, bites the bullet and goes along with the Cheney-Rumsfeld line. Hare never explains what leads to Powell's capitulation, but he leaves you in no doubt that it was a form of self-betrayal. 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.' The great surprise of the show, however, is the way performance leads to reassessment of character. Bush, in many British eyes, is seen as some kind of holy fool or worse. But, through Hare's writing and Alex Jennings's performance, he emerges as a wily and skilful manipulator who plays the role of a bumbling pseudo-Texan but constantly achieves his desired ends. This advice isn’t about denying yourself anything,” she declares. “It’s about being more mindful in your shopping. It’s about enhancing your enjoyment around it. Sustainability has been framed within the language of deprivation for so long; what I’m saying is, ‘I’m trying to make you enjoy your life more’.”The play now seems less arrogant, animated history book with a fixed agenda than a fluid public speculation -- a collective work of imagination that attempts to grasp how and why an unnecessary and unwinnable war was allowed to happen." - Ben Brantley, The New York Times What went wrong? I sense the slight but unmistakable pressure of a playwright’s thumb upon the political scales. Hare seems unwilling to sympathize with the neocons, who were, after all, the chief architects of the war. Neither Donald Rumsfeld nor Paul Wolfowitz is permitted to make his strongest argument (for a revolution in military affairs or the promotion of democracy, respectively) in his own voice. It’s telling that the most resounding defense of the war comes not from one of the historical principals but from an unnamed Angry Journalist, who delivers his speech outside the action and is never heard from again. Stories about boys, aimed at boys and containing real-life stories of their school and home life are rare. Even rarer are those that have readily identifiable characters and situations, and engage, amuse and inform. But here they are.'

I love a book that talks in a kid's voice. It makes us feel important and special. The thing I like the most about these books are that they tell different perspectives of everyday things in life.' Mr 10 – Readingtree.com.au In an Author's Note David Hare writes that Stuff Happens"is surely a play, not a documentary", an almost necessary reminder given how many of the lines repeat words spoken by the actual, historical actors, words that ring very familiar. We all have a view on the war on Iraq. Was it just? Was it legal? Why did it happen? In fact there seems to be nothing about the war in Iraq that is not swamped in a quagmire of controversy. However, no matter how deep the controversy becomes, we need only be reminded of the justifications our illustrious leaders provided for going to war to know that it is they themselves who have dug the foxhole they now find themselves trapped in. By putting you, rather than some dream of minimalism, at the heart of the process Emma explains that it's natural to have stuff and easier than you think to stop it getting out of control. Filled with aha moments from Emma's and her clients' lives, Stuff Happens! will transform your space, headspace and your relationship with stuff FOREVER!Hare is fairly judicious in the material he uses, though he has made some interesting choices in shaping it. For the American TV show, see Stuff Happens (TV show). For the common slang phrase, see Shit happens. Hare then traces the path to invasion, hopping along in short scenes towards the inevitable (and making clear from early on that it was inevitable). Emma’s sustainability wake-up call came very early on in her career, when she moved to London during her 20s to study at the London College of Fashion and her Masters thesis looked at the psychology of over-consumption. Passionate about educating people on the benefits of buying less and buying better, she's an expert on sustainable consumerism and ethical fashion. Emma Gleeson, author of the decluttering guide Stuff Happens! Pic: Supplied As a youngster, Gleeson enjoyed organising her possessions, and was a “bit of a clutterbug”. As a former costume designer for film and theatre she amassed vintage fabrics and accessories before moving into decluttering – for friends, initially – until she realised, “God, I’m quite good at this”.

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] And it's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. For now, the playwright has done well for giving the public persona of Dubya an added and unforeseen dimension, even if Stuff Happens remains too hidebound by recent history to make the imaginative leap into art." - The Economist Stuff Happens premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2004 season and has subsequently been performed around the world.If items need to be fixed, place them in an easily reachable area near the front door and schedule a time to make the repair happen. Today most of physics, and almost all of science, is the study of events — things that happen in the world around us. But what exactly are events? It might seem like a silly question, but modern physics casts doubt on many of the concepts we commonly use to define events: the concept of time in which events play out, the idea of cause and effect that links them together, and the idea that We have internalised a narrative around clothing that if an item doesn’t fit or suit, your body is wrong for the clothes. Practise repeating that it’s the clothes that are wrong for your body, not the other way around. Doing a book clearout? Titles which can definitely go include: out-of-date manuals and textbooks; bestselling novels or Man Booker winners from the early 2000s that you bought and never read, and know you’ll never read but keep out of some sort of intellectual guilt; out-of-date exercise and diet books. In the last year, it has been difficult to escape plays about American imperialism in Iraq and the consequences of the War on Terror. Without too much difficulty, the mind dredges up The Madness of George Dubya, Guantanamo and most recently, Tim Robbins' Embedded.

Scene 15: Powell meets with some members of the UN to discuss Iraq and Saddam. De Villepin thinks that the U.S. decided on the process to invade Iraq without coming up with the purpose for it. The U.S. have been leaving out other countries when it comes to their decisions for the last two years so the rest of the UN are cautious when it comes to making plans with the U.S. The French will help the U.S. if their goal is to disarm Saddam but won't help if the goal is to fully invade Iraq. [2] Stuff Happens is more an indictment than a play. (...) Most of the actors, however, cannot rise above the smugness and caricature in the writing." - Howard Kissel, New York Daily News He condemns the media coverage for overblowing the extent of the looting and then failing to report as prominently that in fact only a small portion of Iraq's treasures were looted. Emma’s answer is mindful materialism which means being conscious of the global system behind stuff, appreciating the resources that are used to make it and accepting the responsibility of where our items will go once we are done with them. 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."

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Stuff Happens is a play by David Hare, written in response to the Iraq war during the Bush administration. It talks about the events that led to the war on Iraq in 2003, which ps from George Bush’s election in 2000 up till his stepping down from office in 2008. The title is inspired by Donald Rumsfeld’s response to journalists about the looting happening in Baghdad where he replied “Stuff Happens”. The writer already states in the authors note that it is “knowingly true” but he had to use his imagination in parts that were not covered especially when the politicians were behind closed doors. Once it becomes clear that Bush has decided on war, then there is a powerful incentive for those around him to find a rationale for the coming conflict that they can live with. After all, they can’t dissuade this man. As Swift’s wonderful aphorism puts it, which is attached as an epigraph to the play: “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.”