CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED

LEAVING IOWA

TRAVELS WELL

 
 
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Leaving Iowa Takes a Poignant, Funny Road Trip

BY MAUREEN LEARY

-MADISON ISTHMUS

“Adventures in Iowa are like steep hills – pretty hard to come by” Also, hard to come by are humorous plays about the Midwest that don’t reduce Midwesterners to chirpy, folksy caricatures. Leaving Iowa achieves just this with its smart, funny and at time’s poignant look at what it meant to grow up in, and ultimately leave, small-town Iowa. The script travels deftly from laugh out loud funny to poignant and back again, its pathos always tempered by humor

Leaving Iowa is about appreciating those people who are generally rather reluctant to call attention to themselves. It’s a love letter to practical parents and their everyday sacrifices, a valentine to all the unsung heroes of the flyover states.

 
 
 
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"Leaving Iowa is a comic tribute to the family vacation."

 
 
 
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“You don’t have to be the child of a small-town Iowa couple living in the midst of hog farms and cornfields to identify with everything about the simultaneously hilarious and touching ‘Leaving Iowa.” 

 
 
 
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"Leaving Iowa’ is a comic tribute to the family vacation.”

 
 
 
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“This is a comedy with a more serious edge, giving the humor an even more satisfying resonance… Come for the laughs and stay to be moved.” 

 
 
 
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“ ‘Leaving Iowa’ is frankly one of the best shows I’ve seen this year. If you a) are from Iowa, b) are from the Midwest, c) have left home to move somewhere else, d) have ever taken a road trip e) have a family of any sort, you are required to go see this show!” 

 
 
 
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“This warmhearted comedy about the American family pulses with nostalgia, radiates soft charm and stays entertaining without running out of gas.”

 
 
 
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“What makes this piece unique is that the comedy, like that of Mark Twain, is rooted in people’s imperfections.” 

 
 
 
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“The play presents 1960’s Americana in such a poignant yet humorous light that audience can’t help but allow their own imaginations to drift to their own families and road trips.”

 
 
 
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“Leaving Iowa” is a poignantly touching and belly-bustingly funny story of family dynamics.” 

 
 
 
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"Family ties bind most lovingly in 'Leaving Iowa' By Joan Behrmann / Special to The Detroit News

How shocking is this? Are you ready for a father-son story in which the bonds of love and respect are forged of steel, in a family that is, in fact, wrapped in a cocoon of love?"