By By Robert Bethune
"Honor thy father," says the ancient book, and that's what Don Browning wants to do in Williamston Theater's production of "Leaving Iowa," by Tim Clue and Spike Manton. It sounds simple: Go where father asked that his ashes be scattered and do it. Problem is, the place is now a supermarket, not what Dad loved. Now what? The classic American answer: Keep driving, son, something will turn up. And it does. Despite all the emotional and familial cross-currents that trouble Don to the point of making him crazy, the answer turns up – right in the center of things.
Keep on driving. Follow the road. Trust the tour guide and the billboards not to lead you astray. Know that no matter how insane the kids get in the back seat, no matter if your father does in fact have to pull the car over, no matter if everybody in the car winds up screaming at each other, that the road is the truth and the family is the answer.
Tony Caselli's direction and the designs by Vincent Mountain (set) and Ted Rhyner (lights) are delightfully simple and theatrical. The set is a platform with a row of wheat for the Iowa earth below four geometric panels textured by paint and light for the Iowa sky. (Yes, Yazmina Reza, this is Art.) Four stools and a table become the car, the diner and every other location required.
The playwrights keep our minds firmly fixed on Don, played simply and sympathetically by John Lepard. He is the center of a fine ensemble: Hugh Maguire as mildly eccentric Dad, in love with historical and statistical trivia; Anne Miranda as patient, long-suffering Mom who can be pushed too far; Teri Clark Linden as the irritating, temperamental, but loving sister; Bruce Bennett as many people, especially the hog farmer at the exact center of the USA. All are stereotypes, but rendered with warm, sympathetic, nostalgic humor.
It's a production well worth seeing.
REVIEW:
'Leaving Iowa'
Williamston Theatre, 122 S. Putnam St., Williamston. Through Nov. 9. Tickets: $18-$24. For information: 517-655-7469 or http://www.williamstontheatre.org.
