theater reviews
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With the help of some household objects, ‘Coop’ captures the dark, true story of an Amish conscientious objector from Iowa during WWII

by Kevin Richard Schafer

Iowa City playwright Mary Swander’s most recent play began with a chance find at a local store. “Years ago, I took a walk down the road one day from my place, an old Amish one-room schoolhouse, to the country store,” Swander recounts on her Substack. “There, they have a rack of literature … My eyes […]

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Review: Black Box Theatre’s ‘The Lion in Winter’ weaves a tapestry of family drama, medieval intrigue and humor

by Broc Nelson

The Black Box Theatre of Moline, Illinois, as the name implies, is a simple theater space. That didn’t hold back its recent production of The Lion in Winter, which closed the company’s 2025 season with a slow-burning play that uses the intimacy of its space to ratchet up the intensity of its production of James […]

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Review: Iowa Stage Theatre Company, no stranger to ‘A Christmas Carol,’ incorporates songs, humor and a message from the Present

by Isaac Hamlet

A Christmas Carol is a familiar tale. Familiar not just to the average English speaker, it is a tale that should be especially familiar to audiences of the Iowa Stage Theater Company (ISTC). Over the years, ISTC has made an annual production of A Christmas Carol a tradition, often repeating actors and crew year to […]

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Review: Iowa Stage Theatre Company makes deft use of long monologues and long silences with Sam Shepard’s ‘Buried Child’

by Isaac Hamlet

Most of the characters in Buried Child do not exist. Not just because the players in Sam Shepard’s 1960s-set American drama are fictional, but because nearly every character, at some point, has the desperate need to assert that their existence is factual and their perspective true. By the time the play ends, one wonders how […]

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Review: About Time Theatre’s ‘Squeamish’ is so effective, I had to step out

by Isaac Hamlet

There’s a phrase that you’ll have likely heard if you’ve taken any English or Communications courses: “The medium is the message.” The notion was expressed by Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian media commentator, attempting to express the importance of the packaging/setting/staging as a vehicle for any piece of (for lack of a better word) content. McLuhan […]

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Review: ‘The Laramie Project’ is a legitimately brave production from the Des Moines Young Artists’ Theatre

by Isaac Hamlet

By the time you read this, the Des Moines Young Artists’ Theatre’s (DMYAT) production of The Laramie Project at Stoner Theater will have come and gone. While this remains a review of the company’s latest production, consider this, additionally, an assessment of this youth-centered central Iowa program. DMYAT is a Des Moines nonprofit dedicated to […]

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Review: The Acting Company stages August Wilson’s ‘Two Trains Running’ — set in a 1969 diner — with cinematic precision

by K. Margaret Smith

The Acting Company’s recent production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, presented by Hancher Auditorium in collaboration with Riverside and the Englert Theatre and performed on the latter’s stage March 28 and 29, is a solid and heartfelt rendition of one of Wilson’s most meditative plays.

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Review: A family flails as a 50-year marriage fizzles in ‘Grand Horizons’ from Iowa Stage Theatre Company

by Liz Rosa

The crowd’s perspective of the play shifts to the unfamiliar when the man coyly bends over to reveal his skimpy thong. Don’t get your hopes up; the near-nudity ends there. 

The Iowa Stage Theatre Company recently presented Bess Whol’s Grand Horizons at the Stoner Theater in the Des Moines Civic Center from March 14 to March 23, 2025.

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