Des Moines NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsShow-Score Member Reviews (37)
See it if You enjoy brilliant writing and acting.
Don't see it if You need to overthink everything. You're a hater. You think you know better.
See it if It's a weird show, go into it with that in mind. Acting is fantastic.
Don't see it if This is the type of show you really gotta sit with but its very well done, and great to see those actors up there.
See it if 5 characters struggle with confused identities after losing their reference points. Creative, insightful. Good acting. Zany, funny moments.
Don't see it if You don’t like absurdist theater. One character dreams that we all “get off the plane before it crashes.” But what does that mean?
See it if you can appreciate a piece that doesn't have to take you to a specific place or conclusion. If you are a fan of any of the cast, go see it.
Don't see it if you need to have a wrapped-up story and ending. If you can't just listen to what it brings up in you. Read more
See it if Michael shannon was a great singer
Don't see it if Plays about drunks
See it if you like shows that you experience rather than figure out what is going on - it's a stream-of-consciousness wild ride! Great cast!
Don't see it if you can't handle some intense drinking on stage and want a linear and clear plot. The characters have some pretty severe issues...
See it if you like absurd plays - here 5 characters go off in all directions in a drinking game to reveal themselves and their concerns.
Don't see it if you want a straight play-this jumps around a it and covers the same territory over a bit and may leave many wondering what it is all about.
See it if Want to see something truly interesting and different in theatre, really compelling acting and mind bending writing
Don't see it if you don’t like watching anything non-linear, you have to be patient with this one because it’s not adhering to form, it’s breaking it
Critic Reviews (8)
"Everything is ridiculous, and after an hour and 40 minutes, 'Des Moines', like a night spent drinking at home, ends with a stubborn lack of resolution."
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"The emptiness of 'Des Moines' feels as vast and unsettling as its Great Plains setting. Facing up against the cutoff of death, all there is to do is drink and sing and avoid talking about it."
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"I wasn't bored at any time during the play's one hour and 40 minutes. I suspect this was due less to the play itself than to the strength of the performances, all of which end up being as hilarious as they are absurd."
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Making its belated New York premiere, this 2007 drama by the late Denis Johnson, long acclaimed for his novels and short stories, is a kind of dramatic spook house, haunted by the shades of other playwrights' better, more vivid works. It strains to unsettle, using stratagems so well-worn that they have lost the power to provoke. If I had to guess, I'd say that Johnson probably didn't spend much time going to the theatre; if he had, I doubt he would have come up with something as derivative as this.
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"Des Moines sputters at the end...But even if its final destination proves unclear, the rambling journey getting there is infinitely rewarding."
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American author Denis Johnson often wrote about misfits as part of his vision of a semi-mythic West. His play "Des Moines" from 2007, one of seven he wrote, now having its New York premiere at Theatre for a New Audience, includes these themes. The play brings together five unlikely Iowa people for an impromptu party that seems to go off the rails. We are never certain if it’s all a dream or if it really happened. While the cast led by Johanna Day, Arliss Howard and Michael Shannon seem to know what is going on, we the audience are entirely left out of the equation.
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"The actors are shooting stars. They are comets crisscrossing the stage, tearing it up, and throwing light on one another and the audience."
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"There’s not really any deeper meaning to be found in one’s cups, here–just momentary camaraderie and some very strange dreams. Maybe that’s the best humanity does have to offer us."
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