Leaving Iowa: A Review
I recently had the opportunity to watch the play Leaving Iowa at the Richmond Hill Players in Geneseo, Illinois. It is the production that they are putting on right before I put up Vintage Hitchcock.
Directed by Justin Raver, this production of Leaving Iowa had Kevin Babbitt in the lead role. He plays Don Browning. He is fully grown, and self-sufficient in the present day. And he seamlessly shifts from playing his middle-aged adult self to playing himself as an adolescent and teen. The action starts with a flashback to his youth, when he used to go on road trips with his family. The dad, played by Don Faust, reprising his role from the Playcrafter's production in 2011, is driving the family across Missouri to the center of the country, somewhere in Kansas.
The problem is he's decided to make this detour in the middle of the night. Everyone is expecting to be home by now, in Iowa. He falls asleep at the wheel, and he and the rest of the family only wake up in time to swerve out of the oncoming lane, narrowly avoiding a semi tractor-trailer.
The rest of the play involves Babbitt's character going back to his family home as an adult, three years after the funeral services for his father. Flashbacks to various family trips are made, including the formative road trip where dad forced mom to be a tie breaking vote on heading to a random farm in Kansas to see the alleged centerpoint of the United States, or going home to their warm beds.
Dad's fixation on comandeering the family trip to drive through the night to a different state notwithstanding, the rest of the play takes on a tone of nostalgia. Babbitt's character is a well-adjusted adult, he didn't have a falling out or argument with his dad, he just wants closure. Dad wanted to see this kitchy road side attraction, deep down, like Ray Kinsella's dad loved baseball in Field of Dreams. Like it or not, the fathers pass on down their passions to their sons through their DNA.
I should probably at this point reference the parallels to the play Leaving Iowa with my own life. It hit the nail on the head. Sometimes the moments were as close to my own experience as Roberta Flack's description of Don McLean's "American Pie" was to her own life as expressed in "Killing Me Softly." I remember the 1998 Denver trip. Dad got it in his head that we would travel through four states. Staying the night in Hutchinson Kansas, we would pass into Nebraska, cross into Missouri, then go up into Iowa. A wild adventure ensued, as we went well off of the well-beaten path of Interstate 80 and 70, taking two lane highways, at one point passing a slow vehicle only to be right in the path of a semi tractor trailer. Much like the opening scene in Leaving Iowa.
I remember the detour well off the beaten path on the trip home from Denver to Rock Island where we wound up at the museum and boyhood home for Glenn Miller in Clarinda, Iowa, in 2007.
I remember the visit to the Eisenhower Museum, Presidential Library, and yes boyhood home in Abilene, Kansas, again taking a southern route home from Denver, in 2013.
I remember my dad wanting to visit the National Greyhound Bus Museum in Hibbing, Minnesota. After years of discussing the possibility of making a road trip up north, we finally found a three day stretch to drive up, visit the museum, and drive home. It was in 2017.
Dad loved it. He loved climbing on the old Greyhound ScenicCruisers. He loved getting to see the different models from 1928 to present day. There wasn't much to the museum overall, and we spent more than enough time there to appreciate all of the exhibits. But he got his wish. For him, it was a dream come true.
Much like my own dad, Don Browning's dad did give his children opportunities to see other parts of the country. And his dad did a good job of compromising and allowing the kids to visit landmarks, sites, and tourist attractions that they saw from the highway and culled an interest independently of their father to pull to the side of the road and see for themselves.. So maybe Kevin Babbitt's character does feel a little bit of guilt that they didn't at any point in their youth indulge dad in getting to visit the center of the country. I think that finding the center of the country was a white whale Don Browning feels like they denied their dad the luxury of getting to visit.
Initially, Kevin Babbitt's character is tasked with taking his father's ashes to his boyhood home. Kevin Babbitt's character starts out for his grandparents' house in the hopes of spreading out dad's remains in his grandmother's back yard.
The problem is his grandparents' home has been demolished, and a supermarket has gone up in its place. Poor Don is distraught, disoriented, and a bit belligerent/defensive/combative about his father's boyhood home being demolished. Unfortunately, the supermarket staff and customers aren't in the know about his emotional distress, and his coming to terms with his dad's death. So they back away slowly.
Don drives across Iowa, trying to find the perfect place to leave his dad's ashes to rest permanently. Now that the house is no longer there, he can't honor his dad's wishes to a T. But he knows his dad well enough that he can probably think of a great runner up.
Don Faust did wonderful as usual as the dad. The rest of the cast included Pam Kobre as the mom, Leslie Day as the sister, and Kevin Keck, Julia Totten, Janet VanderSchaff, Patrick Kelly, and Vicky Jones as various characters. Matt McConville also made an appearance, but I found myself waiting for him to show up. He wasn't easily recognizable when he did come onstage.
Leaving Iowa at once reintroduced the horrors of cramming the whole family together in a vehicle for a duration of time; lasting up to a week, perhaps more, including fights with the sister, dad having a case of road rage, big rigs, recreational vehicles, getting lost, disagreeing on attractions to stop for, and having to sacrifice one's own dream vacation for the will of the people; and also represented these ordinary family road trips with a certain 2020 hindsight, back to when times were simple, and you could just pile into the car with your family with some suitcases and go off on adventure. Wow, pun not intended. Because in 2020, well, you know, there was all of one family trip. It was from Rock Island to Lewistown to see the production of Once Upon a Time and Very Far Away: A Cinderella Story at the high school where I work, and this trip was done under the cloud of dread of impending COVID, over March 14th and 15th. So the downsides of a trip look simpler and more innocent through the wistful mirror of reminiscence.
In a couple of scenes, the dad calls a vote for a choice between two destinations. Even if both kids unanimously pick a place, such as a theme park, a cave, a beach, a hike, or a resort, for example, when their dad calls the vote, he always gets mom to vote on his side. And he always claims the right to the tiebreaker.
It would take mom crossing over to vote on the side of the kids for him to be overruled.
When they find themselves in the middle of nowhere at 3:30 in the morning, far from home, though that's where they were allegedly headed, will mom vote in favor of the kids' wish to turn around and go home? Or will she pull the "your father's right" card and indulge dad in driving them through the night as they sleep to parts unknown so he can see if the United States' geographical center lives up to the road signs?
Leaving Iowa is a slice of life. It's a beautiful father and son tale. It was a worthy wrap for a summer season of theater.
Here is a list of all the shows I got to see or partake in in the Winter, Spring and Summer of 2022:
The Spongebob Squarepants Musical- 3.25 stars.
The Odd Couple- 3.5 stars
The Patchwork Girl of Oz- 4 stars
Help! I'm Trapped in a Musical!- 3.5 stars
Disaster! The Musical- 3 stars
Something Rotten- 4 stars
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat- 3.75 stars
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella- 4 stars
Beauty and the Beast- 4 Stars
The Christmas Letter Writing Club- 3.75 stars
Leaving Iowa- 3.33 stars
Dog Sees God- 2 stars
Directed by Justin Raver, this production of Leaving Iowa had Kevin Babbitt in the lead role. He plays Don Browning. He is fully grown, and self-sufficient in the present day. And he seamlessly shifts from playing his middle-aged adult self to playing himself as an adolescent and teen. The action starts with a flashback to his youth, when he used to go on road trips with his family. The dad, played by Don Faust, reprising his role from the Playcrafter's production in 2011, is driving the family across Missouri to the center of the country, somewhere in Kansas.
The problem is he's decided to make this detour in the middle of the night. Everyone is expecting to be home by now, in Iowa. He falls asleep at the wheel, and he and the rest of the family only wake up in time to swerve out of the oncoming lane, narrowly avoiding a semi tractor-trailer.
The rest of the play involves Babbitt's character going back to his family home as an adult, three years after the funeral services for his father. Flashbacks to various family trips are made, including the formative road trip where dad forced mom to be a tie breaking vote on heading to a random farm in Kansas to see the alleged centerpoint of the United States, or going home to their warm beds.
Dad's fixation on comandeering the family trip to drive through the night to a different state notwithstanding, the rest of the play takes on a tone of nostalgia. Babbitt's character is a well-adjusted adult, he didn't have a falling out or argument with his dad, he just wants closure. Dad wanted to see this kitchy road side attraction, deep down, like Ray Kinsella's dad loved baseball in Field of Dreams. Like it or not, the fathers pass on down their passions to their sons through their DNA.
I should probably at this point reference the parallels to the play Leaving Iowa with my own life. It hit the nail on the head. Sometimes the moments were as close to my own experience as Roberta Flack's description of Don McLean's "American Pie" was to her own life as expressed in "Killing Me Softly." I remember the 1998 Denver trip. Dad got it in his head that we would travel through four states. Staying the night in Hutchinson Kansas, we would pass into Nebraska, cross into Missouri, then go up into Iowa. A wild adventure ensued, as we went well off of the well-beaten path of Interstate 80 and 70, taking two lane highways, at one point passing a slow vehicle only to be right in the path of a semi tractor trailer. Much like the opening scene in Leaving Iowa.
I remember the detour well off the beaten path on the trip home from Denver to Rock Island where we wound up at the museum and boyhood home for Glenn Miller in Clarinda, Iowa, in 2007.
I remember the visit to the Eisenhower Museum, Presidential Library, and yes boyhood home in Abilene, Kansas, again taking a southern route home from Denver, in 2013.
I remember my dad wanting to visit the National Greyhound Bus Museum in Hibbing, Minnesota. After years of discussing the possibility of making a road trip up north, we finally found a three day stretch to drive up, visit the museum, and drive home. It was in 2017.
Dad loved it. He loved climbing on the old Greyhound ScenicCruisers. He loved getting to see the different models from 1928 to present day. There wasn't much to the museum overall, and we spent more than enough time there to appreciate all of the exhibits. But he got his wish. For him, it was a dream come true.
Much like my own dad, Don Browning's dad did give his children opportunities to see other parts of the country. And his dad did a good job of compromising and allowing the kids to visit landmarks, sites, and tourist attractions that they saw from the highway and culled an interest independently of their father to pull to the side of the road and see for themselves.. So maybe Kevin Babbitt's character does feel a little bit of guilt that they didn't at any point in their youth indulge dad in getting to visit the center of the country. I think that finding the center of the country was a white whale Don Browning feels like they denied their dad the luxury of getting to visit.
Initially, Kevin Babbitt's character is tasked with taking his father's ashes to his boyhood home. Kevin Babbitt's character starts out for his grandparents' house in the hopes of spreading out dad's remains in his grandmother's back yard.
The problem is his grandparents' home has been demolished, and a supermarket has gone up in its place. Poor Don is distraught, disoriented, and a bit belligerent/defensive/combative about his father's boyhood home being demolished. Unfortunately, the supermarket staff and customers aren't in the know about his emotional distress, and his coming to terms with his dad's death. So they back away slowly.
Don drives across Iowa, trying to find the perfect place to leave his dad's ashes to rest permanently. Now that the house is no longer there, he can't honor his dad's wishes to a T. But he knows his dad well enough that he can probably think of a great runner up.
Don Faust did wonderful as usual as the dad. The rest of the cast included Pam Kobre as the mom, Leslie Day as the sister, and Kevin Keck, Julia Totten, Janet VanderSchaff, Patrick Kelly, and Vicky Jones as various characters. Matt McConville also made an appearance, but I found myself waiting for him to show up. He wasn't easily recognizable when he did come onstage.
Leaving Iowa at once reintroduced the horrors of cramming the whole family together in a vehicle for a duration of time; lasting up to a week, perhaps more, including fights with the sister, dad having a case of road rage, big rigs, recreational vehicles, getting lost, disagreeing on attractions to stop for, and having to sacrifice one's own dream vacation for the will of the people; and also represented these ordinary family road trips with a certain 2020 hindsight, back to when times were simple, and you could just pile into the car with your family with some suitcases and go off on adventure. Wow, pun not intended. Because in 2020, well, you know, there was all of one family trip. It was from Rock Island to Lewistown to see the production of Once Upon a Time and Very Far Away: A Cinderella Story at the high school where I work, and this trip was done under the cloud of dread of impending COVID, over March 14th and 15th. So the downsides of a trip look simpler and more innocent through the wistful mirror of reminiscence.
In a couple of scenes, the dad calls a vote for a choice between two destinations. Even if both kids unanimously pick a place, such as a theme park, a cave, a beach, a hike, or a resort, for example, when their dad calls the vote, he always gets mom to vote on his side. And he always claims the right to the tiebreaker.
It would take mom crossing over to vote on the side of the kids for him to be overruled.
When they find themselves in the middle of nowhere at 3:30 in the morning, far from home, though that's where they were allegedly headed, will mom vote in favor of the kids' wish to turn around and go home? Or will she pull the "your father's right" card and indulge dad in driving them through the night as they sleep to parts unknown so he can see if the United States' geographical center lives up to the road signs?
Leaving Iowa is a slice of life. It's a beautiful father and son tale. It was a worthy wrap for a summer season of theater.
Here is a list of all the shows I got to see or partake in in the Winter, Spring and Summer of 2022:
The Spongebob Squarepants Musical- 3.25 stars.
The Odd Couple- 3.5 stars
The Patchwork Girl of Oz- 4 stars
Help! I'm Trapped in a Musical!- 3.5 stars
Disaster! The Musical- 3 stars
Something Rotten- 4 stars
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat- 3.75 stars
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella- 4 stars
Beauty and the Beast- 4 Stars
The Christmas Letter Writing Club- 3.75 stars
Leaving Iowa- 3.33 stars
Dog Sees God- 2 stars