Performances began February 4 for Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Dakar 2000, penned by Rajiv Joseph (King James). The work is playing NY City Center Stage I, with opening night set for February 27. Hear from the cast and creatives in the video above.
May Adrales is directing the piece, a thriller about a Peace Corps volunteer who survives a mysterious car accident in Senegal on the eve of Y2K, only to then make a strange connection with an imposing State Department operative who shows up at the hospital to take control of the scene. But what attendees might not know is Joseph himself was once immersed in a similar setting.
"I served in the Peace Corps in Senegal for three years," Joseph says. "Not in Dakar, but in a small village south of Dakar. When I started thinking about this story, to kind of frame it within the lens of a spy thriller felt very apropos and exciting to me."
Starring in the two-hander are Abubakr Ali (Anything's Possible, Law & Order: Organized Crime) and Mia Barron (The Coast Starlight, Hurricane Diane).
Ali says he was familiar with Joseph's work even before Dakar 2000 came along: "I did a play last year, and on opening night, I met Rajiv," he recalls. "For me personally, I'd been a huge fan, I'd been obsessed with Rajiv's play in high school...He asked me to do a workshop of this play, and that was the first thing for me—I freaked out. I could not believe that. That was, truly, it was like a dream come true."
Past connections run deep among the Dakar 2000 team, even in shared aspects of Ali and Barron's training. "[Ali and I] discovered, not only, we knew we had the same acting teacher from our respective graduate programs...but then it turned out we had the same undergraduate Shakespeare teacher," Barron says. "So we've weirdly had a very similar [education]. I feel like we approach things with a similar vocabulary, and a similar openness and sense of play, and that's great."
Performances will continue through March 23.
The production also features scenic design by Tim Mackabee, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Alan C. Edwards, projection design by Shawn Duan, hair and makeup design by Tommy Kurzman, and casting by Kelly Gillespie. Merrick A.B. Williams serves as production stage manager.
Visit ManhattanTheatreClub.com for tickets.
