Tings Dey Happen: Three Stars * * *

There is a fantastic play running at the Marsh: Dan Hoyle's 'Tings Dey Happen.' Hoyle spent a year in Nigeria, and then wrote the one-man show to comment on the crazy world of oil politics there. He performs in short, manic segments, playing at least two dozen characters -- the warlord, the preacher, the ambassador, the gang leader, the oil worker, the defense contractor, the stage manager -- and let us not forget the brilliant Yellow Man whose soliloquy closes Act One and basically sums up the history of African colonial politics.

Hoyle is a funny guy, and he's an actor: he becomes each character, infusing each with a spot-on accent to match. He's not pandering to the audience either -- that Africa pidgin spoken by the gangsters in the Niger Delta is next to impossible to understand, but Hoyle's fluid body language conveys to your eyes any meaning you miss with your ears.

If you were watching this show at the Orpheum or the A.C.T. theater, you'd probably call it a work of genius. But at the Marsh, with its bare minimum packing-crate stage and lighting that looks like it comes from flashlights, that's a hard word to throw out there. Still, no one can deny that 'Tings Dey Happen' is brilliant. And remember, the Marsh is the most user-friendly theater in town -- several nights during the run are pay-what-you-can. Now, that's genius.

The Great Plotnik Theater Awards Division awards 'Tings Dey Happen' one star for the writing, one star for the performing and one star for all the accents, plus a phantom half star for the costume changes -- there aren't any, but half a star might have been waiting with a hat here or a beanie there. Just a thought. Great play, though.