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For a tense, 90-minute two-hander,Dakar 2000has an awful lot on its mind.
Apologetically reversing that purple prose, he adds, in a galaxy far, far away.
They arrive through encrypted emails on the orders of unnamed masters.
Maybe he killed someone on one of those missions along the way.
It would be a better story if it did happen, but it didnt.
The driving question becomes is Boubs lying about the missions, or is he lying about lying?
She could bring down punishment on him.
Or and you’re free to feel the claw of imperialism descending he could owe her a favor.
Under May Adraless direction, Barron and Ali build Boubs and Dinas dynamic toward an intriguingly uneasy alliance.
Theyre using each other, they bothknowtheyre using each other, and yet they also enjoy each others company.
YetDakar 2000doesnt accelerate from there.
Joseph works additively, tacking on new ideas about Dina and Boubss dynamic, then explores them incompletely.
Dinas backstory, for instance, involves the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania in 1998.
Shes become obsessed with the threat of Islamic terror and her own quest for revenge.
He can only hint at how Dinas perspective would soon become the standard posture of American diplomacy.
Its a powerful temptation to be told you are useful, he says at one point.
Its a powerful temptation to be told we need you.
All that could be better justified, however, if the thriller element ofDakarwere more fully fleshed out.
Near the end of the play, Dina sends Boubs off on one of those missions.
Should we feel that Boubs is really in danger, or is he just pulling our legs?
Does he really do something bad on Dinas behalf, or is this just normal operating procedure?
Is that procedure itself bad?
Because Joseph wants so much to be possible, the play cant commit to a full gesture.
Hes self-imposed too much on the work.
In fact, the final element of the thing might be the most restricting.
Joseph has said thatDakar 2000is in part autobiographical, although I assume significantly exaggerated in details of that spywork.
(Though admitting to espionage via an Off Broadway premiere would be a good bit.)
This, too, is a case ofmaybe or maybe not.
But the version, as it exists now, cant fulfill both those objectives at once.
Dakar 2000is at MTC at New York City Center through March 23.
