Acacia Theatre Company continues its season this week with the Tim Clue and Spike Manton comedy Leaving Iowa. It’s a baby-boomer road trip that originally appeared onstage in 2004 with Michigan’s Purple Rose Theatre Company.
Playwrights Clue and Manton started out as stand-up comedians. They have long been experienced with straight-ahead jokes, but Leaving Iowa marks their first foray into a full-length production for the stage. The script tells the story of a man traveling across the United States in search of the proper resting place for his father’s ashes. Along the way, he relives summer trips with his family as viewed from the backseat of the car.
Clue hails from Chicago and Manton is from New York, but the two found that they had very similar family experiences on the highway while growing up. Those experiences, seen through the rearview mirror of adulthood, form the basis of a script that has been lovingly fussed over many, many times.
The comedy now makes it to the stage in a production directed by Elaine Wyler, who draws on similar childhood road trips and very deep respect for a script that has been extensively road-tested elsewhere.
“What I like about the play is all its realism,” Wyler says. “It’s so accessiblefor everyone. It’s outrageously funny, accurate, poignant and moving. It’s quite a lovely piece.”
Acacia Theatre Company’s production of Leaving Iowa runs Feb. 25-March 6 at Concordia University’s Todd Wehr Auditorium. To reserve tickets, call 414-744-5995.
Theater HappeningsIn
- Tandem Theatre’s production of the classic 1970s suspense-comedy Murder at the Howard Johnson’s stars Cat Yates, Darrel Cherney and Dylan Bolin. The show runs Feb. 25-March 13 at the Tenth Street Theatre. To reserve tickets, call the box office at 414-271-1371.
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- The women of William Shakespeare’s plays are celebrated in the UWM TheatreDepartment’s latest Labworks project. The Second Best Bed: Shakespeare’s Women Revealedan exploration of sonnets, scenes and monologuesruns Feb. 25-March 6 at Kenilworth Studio 508. To reserve tickets, call the box office at 414-229-4308.
