David Hare stages rehearsed reading of Stuff Happens at the National

Playwright David Hare is to direct a rehearsed reading of his play Stuff Happens to coincide with the publication of the Chilcot Inquiry report.

Hare's play will be staged for one night only on 6 July on the National's Lyttelton stage. Stuff Happens originally ran in 2004 at the National Theatre and starred Alex Jennings as George Bush, who returns to the role for this reading.

The piece is inspired by Donald Rumsfeld's response to the looting of Baghdad at a press conference in 2003. He said: "Stuff happens… and it's untidy, and freedom's untidy and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things."

The piece looks at the diplomatic process that lead to the invasion of Iraq.

Hare said: "In 2004 Nicholas Hytner said the National Theatre could not call itself by that name if it did not have a play about the invasion of Iraq in that calendar year. He was right. And now twelve years later, when the inquiry into those events is to be published, it seems appropriate to mark the event by presenting the play which first laid out the diplomatic process leading to the most controversial foreign policy decision of my life-time."