'Dakar 2000' review — gripping new play is full of twists
Read our review of Dakar 2000 off Broadway, a new play by Rajiv Joseph presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, running at New York City Center through March 23.
Rajiv Joseph’s Dakar 2000, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center, is a tad weightier than King James, his last MTC two-hander. While the latter involves friends beefing over basketball, Dakar 2000 is loosely based on the playwright’s time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal; he was stationed there when, across the continent, terrorists bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Joseph’s young and arrogant yet self-deprecating protagonist Boubs (Abubakr Ali) — short for Boubacar, giggles intended — learns that Dina (Mia Barron), the State Department official he’s quickly developing a crush on, just transferred from Dar es Salaam and lost her whole team in the bombing. Their relationship, in which the personal and the professional overlap, quickly takes on a new intensity, one that’s hard to describe without spoiling the play’s whirlwind of surprises.
It feels at times that both Ali and Barron are holding back in their performances, especially when Ali addresses the audience in somewhat awkwardly-paced opening and closing monologues. With a character like Dina, thrust into extreme situations under the global spotlight, an actor risks both playing too close to their chest and playing the emotional climax too soon. Dina must be strategic in revealing her true intentions piece by piece, which leaves Barron to beg for the audience’s trust and approval.
Dakar 2000’s plot, however, is gripping enough to make up for any shortcomings in character development. The script’s revelations trickle down in spurts before converging in an all-out flood of manipulation. “You can’t like someone AND manipulate them!” Boubs screeches at one point, heartbroken to think he was just a pawn in Dina’s game. “Yes, you can,” Dina insists. Joseph’s exploration of the cost of trying to be a good person reminds us no character is simply a hero or a villain.
Dakar 2000 summary
When Boubs (Ali), a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal in 1999, flips his truck full of supplies on a dark rural road, State Department worker Dina (Barron) calls his bluff: She knows he wasn’t supposed to be delivering cement to the village to build a community garden, and she threatens to send him home for reallocating State Department funds.
Boubs can stay if he can reconfigure some paperwork in his favor, but it’s just a few days before New Year’s, and with Y2K around the corner, Dina’s not sure the paperwork can stand up to a possible nuclear apocalypse. As Boubs endeavors to impress Dina, he slowly comes to realize her job may not be as straightforward as he’d thought — and she may not be who she says she is.
What to expect at Dakar 2000
Dakar 2000 runs approximately 80 minutes without an intermission. The play includes references to violence, terrorism, death, and Islamophobia and depicts the consumption of alcohol.
What audiences are saying about Dakar 2000
Dakar 2000 currently has an audience approval rating of 79% on the review aggregator Show-Score.
- Show-Score user TheaterBuff called Dakar 2000 a “polished, fast-paced thriller” and said Ali has “star quality.”
- On Bluesky, user Dylan Lyons said, “We love an 80-minute philosophical thriller play.”
- Show-Score user Bill 6228 said that the real “star of the show” may be designer Tim Mackabee’s set, including a turntable and ramp that easily allows the players to ascend to new heights.
Read more audience reviews of Dakar 2000 on Show-Score.
Who should see Dakar 2000
- If you enjoyed King James, Manhattan Theatre Club’s last mounting of a Rajiv Joseph play, you’ll want to check out this two-hander.
- Fans of Lincoln Center’s productions The Coast Starlight and The Wolves will enjoy seeing Lortel Award-winning star Mia Barron as Dina.
- If you enjoyed the MTC productions of Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone and Poor Yella Rednecks, come see director May Adrales’ take on Joseph’s new work.
Learn more about Dakar 2000 off Broadway
Joseph’s play packs decades of punches into its 80-minute run time, and it may be the best new work from the Pulitzer Prize finalist in recent years.
Photo credit: Dakar 2000 off Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy)
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