If you blink you’ll miss “Stuff Happens,” a controversial history play held tonight at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Lakewood Playhouse.

A minimalist black-box theater, which boasts a podium and folding chairs on the upper level, with steps and a very last-supper-esque banquet table on the level below, plays host to the cast of 12 reading the show, clothed in suits and ties.  The story that unfolds is of duplicitous diplomatic dealings and bumbling president never seen alone.

The president is none other than George W, opening all his staff meeting with the hands of his staff clasped in prayer, putting together a jigsaw puzzle with Laura, and tripping through a teleprompter-mistake with severe diplomatic repercussions.

Most surprising about this “staged reading”, written by Englishman David Hare, which takes a critical look at the events leading up to the United States’ declaration of War on Iraq, is that it’s being staged right now at the Lakewood Playhouse, sandwiched right in between two military installations, whose most recent show was the rave-reviewed "Seussical."

The whole play feels experimental, with its stripped-down staging and impromptu nature.  All the actors read from notebooks, which are often used as props.  Many of the actors play multiple parts, most notably Jamie Pederson, Aaron Heinzen, Charles Canada, Jack House, and Jim Patrick.  Cynthia Bette also reads for a plethora of personalities, effectively so, as Chad Russell directs, with stage management by Brie Yost and technical direction by Ali Criss. 

The play was originally performed in London in 2004 as an epic, 40-person cast piece, and then stripped down for Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum.

It was the latter that Russell was shooting for in his conception of the staging of the play, paring down the actors to 12, with only three weeks (and six rehearsals) to prepare for opening night.

This is the first in what Managing Artistic Director Marcus Walker hopes will be a series of plays done in a workshop style, “in between shows” that will take on edgier themes than the standard community theater fodder.

For this play, moments of acerbic British wit highlight a riveting text full of scene-by-scene conflict made more interesting by the playwright’s skillful manipulation of on-the-record statements with those conversations behind closed doors that can only be speculated. A post-show discussion with actors and audience provides further insight as to the play, events, point-of-view, and acting process: kind of like an "Inside the Actor’s Studio" without that goofy A&E host.

Admission is by donation ($10.00 recommended). â€" Jessica Corey-Butler