Dakar 2000

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Half of Rajiv Joseph’s plays take in countries all around the world: India, Iraq, Russia, East Germany, Japan. His latest play, Dakar 2000, is set in Senegal just before Y2K at the time when the author was there as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Directed by May Adrales who also directed Joseph’s Letters to Suresh at the Second Stage, it is a diverting thriller on the lines of Graham Greene and John le Carré’s self-named “entertainments.” In this two hander, Abubakr Ali and Mia Barron make interesting competitors as they flirt, lie and plot in an adventure that takes all of two days leading up to New Year’s Eve.

Our narrator/hero nicknamed Boubs (short for Boubacar) overturns a pickup truck on the way to the village of Fatick with supplies he was sent by the State Department for another purpose. As a result he comes to the attention of U.S. government operative Dina Stevens, newly transferred from the U.S. embassy in Tanzania to be Deputy Regional Supervisor of Safety & Security for Sub-Saharan Africa. First she wants to hear the details of the accident and then she needs to know what Boubs was doing with supplies requisitioned on her records for use at his Regional House in Kaolack. She gives him an out if he can get paperwork filled in and signed returned back to her before New Year’s Eve when her report is due, keeping him from getting sent home. Little does Boubs know that this will involve him in nefarious public service.

The play moves by unexpected twists and turns which are both amusing and engrossing. We never do find out for certain if Dina is a spy or not. However, she does tell Boubs that she was stationed at the embassy in Dar es Salaam when al-Quada terrorists blew up both the Kenya and Tanzanian American embassies killing 200 and wounding 4,000. As she lost all of her friends and colleagues, she has vowed to hunt down and bring to justice those responsible.

Barron’s Dina is flirtation, cagey, shrewd and sharp witted, a noble adversary. However, she never becomes the femme fatale of classic thrillers. Ali as Boubs, on the other hand, is wily, cunning and streetwise, never revealing all he knows, nor does Dina. He is chameleon-like in his sudden changes and revelations.  Their flirtation which may lead to a seduction is charming and droll even though they are 20 years apart in age.

Designer Tim Mackabee has cleverly solved the problem of the multiple sets needed by using a revolving turntable as well as an elevated runway that presents the US Embassy in Dakar, a restaurant and later a rooftop in Kaolack, and a hotel room in Dakar.  This is enhanced by the projection design by Shawn Duan for both indoor and outdoor scenes on a cyclorama which envelops the set. The attractive casual Senegalese costumes for Boubs and the America business outfits for Dina are the work of Emily Rebholz. The varied lighting by Alan C. Edwards includes the hot African sun as well as a midnight moonlight scene.

While Rajiv Joseph’s Dakar 2000 is not as exciting as some exotically set thrillers have been in film, the play is very enjoyable and absorbing. Where it will go next is always intriguing. While Boubs tells us at the outset that “All of it is true. Or most it anyway,” we never entirely know how to take this fanciful tale. Director May Adrales keeps the story bubbling along though she fails to turn Mia Barron into a classic seductress. However, the play will have you believe that the innocent Boubs is roped into the darker side of public service. The milieu and the setting are exotic though we are not shown the really colorful side of Africa which of course is not the point for these transplanted Americans.

Dakar 2000 (through March 23, 2025)

Manhattan Theatre Club

New York City Center Stage I, 131 W. 55^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets call, 212-581-1212 or visit http://www.ManhattanTheatreClub.org

Running time: 85 minutes without an intermission