“The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.”

-GK Chesterton

There is a certain magic to plays that the modern films have yet to replace for me. It is something about the trembling echo of voices, unadulterated by miles of wires; or the simple backdrops which your mind fills in with crowds, clouds, and crows; or the sound of an orchestra in perfect sync with the actors, the merger of two arts as old as history. Even the worst of plays holds my attention, a certain glee that I can only compare to the innocent intensity of children listening to a story teller.

It is with such excitement that I will be reviewing any play I can manage to sneak my way into. Des Moines has a wide variety of playhouses, from the larger shows at the Civic Center, to smaller shows at the Playhouse, Drake Theatre, Stage West, and more. The variety in subject and style offers anyone the opportunity to participate in one of the finest forms of public entertainment, and support local artists and actors who have lately been forced to fight hard for younger viewers.

Tonight, I will be attending Doubt at the Des Moines Playhouse. With the release of the movie, the play has garnered a reputation for its provocative nature due to its simultaneous criticisms and defenses of the Catholic Church, as well as its ambiguous ending. The Church has lately been the subject of much ridicule, some warranted and not, so it is refreshing to see an author taking a serious look at the issues, instead of haphazardly attacking an institution for the sake of shock, as has been popular in the last 50 years of play-writing. Hopefully the director will use the material to its fullest, and allow the ambiguity to fully realize itself in the minds of the audience. Expect a full review up tomorrow.

“He steps on stage and draws the sword of rhetoric, and when he is through, someone is lying wounded and thousands of others are either angry or consoled.”

-Pete Hamill

For a list of playhouses and their productions, see here.

The highlights in Des Moines include the Bacchae by Euripides being put on at Drake University, and Souvenir at Stage West, and the Chekhov Shorts being staged by Repertory Theater of Iowa. There are also some fantastic sounding productions scattered across all of Iowa, many worth a short drive across the state.

I heartily recommend seeing any play you can tear yourself out of the house for – a play can be entertaining, challenging, beautiful; the worst of plays can still be the best of nights. As George Bernard Shaw once said -

“In order to fully realize how bad a popular play can be, it is necessary to see it twice.”

-George Bernard Shaw

See a play, good or bad, see it twice – plays have been a leading cultural event since the Greeks laughed and died on stage for their Gods. The burgeoning theatre scene in Iowa is a grand chance to support the community and the arts, and while we might not be pouring libations to Dionysus, we can certainly show our support for the actors and writers with our laughter and tears.

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