The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: MTC’s Dakar 2000
By Ross
It’s a thoroughly clever initial engagement that ignites Rajiv Joseph’s fascinating journey through a story within a story, a time within a time, where all is said to be true, but with numerous caveats thrown in for a captivating mixture of work and play. Dakar 2000, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center Stage 1, gives you its time and place upfront, but not a solid landing to know what’s really going on. Filled with false starts and side truths, all rotating around what is authentically true, the lead character, a glorified delivery boy who goes by the Senegal nickname of Boubs, played most effectively by the charmer Abubakr Ali (Neltflix’s “Grendel“; 2ST’s Toros), draws us in with his mischievous smile and a delivery that has edges of arrogance around a core of discomfort, nervousness, and confusion. Or is that just an act, to manipulate us into caring for this wild boy-man who wants to have a sense of purpose, but isn’t straight with us about whether he found it or not?
On a well-laid-out stage, courtesy of set designer Tim MacKabee (MCC’s Seared), that expertly rotates us through the fascinating timeline that is Dakar 2000, our allegiance is happily given to the young goofy sweet Boubs, a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Senegal; who ridiculously giggles his way through his complex story about his involvement with a State Department official by the name of Dina during a time when, across the continent, terrorists are bombing U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Dina, tightly and wisely portrayed by Mia Barron (NYTW’s Hurricane Diane), seems to be the cornerstone of reason and responsibility. Yet, we can’t help ourselves be taken in by his big smile and her knowing grin, because, as written by Joseph (Describe the Night; Bengal Tiger…), they both are completely captivating, in very different ways. Boubs, our untrustworthy narrator, is a wild card that we want to hang out with, on his roof looking at the stars and comets that fling across the sky, but also to sit back with Dina at our side, drink a beer, and hear them tell us a few stories. Whether you decide to believe them or not is a whole other thing entirely.
This is the art of Dakar 2000, a tense, tangled wisely written weaving of manipulation and lustful engagement, loosely based on the playwright’s own connection to the Peace Crops as a volunteer in Africa. As directed with clear intent by May Adrales (MTC’s Vietgone; Poor Yella Rednecks), we buy into the charm of this young man and want to ride shotgun with him throughout the complex tale. His desperation to stay in a place where he finally feels like he has a sense of purpose is the final intrigue that completely hooks us into his desire for engagement and adventure. Against a beautifully crafted projected panorama, designed impeccably by Shawn Duan (Broadway’s Mother Play), with perfectly constructed costuming by Emily Rebholz (Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill), subtle lighting by Alan C. Edwards (Public’s Sally & Tom), and a clever sound design by Bray Poor (Broadway’s Appropriate), we go along with Boubs for the ride of his life, quite happily, feeling the overlapping of personal and professional escalate quickly, mainly because of the sly Dina and the slow unraveling of her own sense of purpose and drive.
Dina captivatingly leans in to the wide-eyed Boubs, attacking, retreating, and aligning herself with his reckless love-sick puppy-ness, his underlying need for purpose, and his fumbling ability to craft a lie to save himself when needed. It’s a combination that works for this official, that draws her in close to the big, wildly imaginative young man. Seeing an opportunity through subtle, somewhat honest validation, she unwraps a tragic tale about the loss of her whole 4-horse person team in the bombing of an Embassy that will become an even more powerful ingredient as the Y2K New Year Eve celebration approaches. Barron’s delivery is completely engaging, forever forcing our minds to jump around wondering where the line between true and honest engagement has been drawn inside her calculating mind. And Ali handles the conflictual developments of Boubs with an equally strong balancing act that feels authentic yet wildly and personally flooding.
“You can’t like someone AND manipulate them!” Boubs states as his world quickly shifts, rotating around a hotel’s food service cart and a killer scenario he didn’t see coming. He sharply becomes broken and confused by what he might be hearing, if he is correct in his understanding of what Dina is asking of him. “Yes, you can,” Dina insists, winning the argument against the helpless Boubs. And in that framing, we question everything that we are being told. And have been told, right back to those opening lines that might all be as manipulating as this ask is. Yet we remain, completely engaged and hypnotized, much like Boubs, to the wisely crafted creation that is Dakar 2000. The bookend monologues do tend to rotate in a too lengthy manner around the truth. But the overall effect in this 90-minute tense unraveling is utterly compelling and completely captivating, and should not be missed. And that’s no lie. Trust me, in the same way you can’t really trust them.
Dakar 2000, a new play by Rajiv Joseph, presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, is now running off-Broadway at New York City Center Stage 1 through March 23. For more information and tickets, click here.
