By Bryna Jacobs
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 5, 1998

'Rocket Man' takes off

Everyone has periods when life seems to be moving down the wrong track. If your life was like that of "Rocket Man" protagonist Donny Rowan - your wife left you for another man, your career is boring, you forgot your daughter's 16th birthday, and the woman you are in love with does not reciprocate your feelings - what path would you travel down?

How about one where there are no boundaries?

Making his third world premiere with Arizona Theatre Company, contemporary playwright Steven Dietz is currently challenging his audiences' understanding about the universe with his new show, "Rocket Man."

"[Dietz] writes of what we don't know so we can enlarge our vision of what's in the world," says the director of the production, David Ira Goldstein.

In the show, Donny chooses to abandon whatever is left in his meaningless life, leave it all behind, settle into his favorite recliner and transport himself to a parallel world somewhere on the other side of the universe.

"'Rocket Man' asks the question, and after a fashion answers it, 'If that parallel world is truly outside of time future or time past, beyond the pain of the present, then where is it? Who can be there with you? How do you find it?'" reflects Dr. Robert Houston, professor and director of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Arizona.

Houston, along with Dietz, was part of a panel that led a discussion of the ideas raised by and inherent in "Rocket Man," Monday evening at the Temple of Music and Art.

What is truly appealing about this production is the way in which it focuses on those issues and uncertainties which we have all faced at some point in our lives: What happens when we die? Is there another world somewhere out there? Can we erase the past and start again?

In the attic of Donny's home, the audience is given a pass to enter behind closed doors, to a place where the intimate details of one's life are revealed, to view the contents of a sealed box emptied on the stage.

"[Dietz's] language is very direct and theatrical and lives on the stage," says Goldstein. "He loves direct address, speeches made directly to the audience; you never know where the subject matter of the play will take you. And he has themes that resonate through his plays - particularly, being honest in relationships, whether in marriage, friendship or business."

A balance of humor, pathos, and witty one-liners stays constant throughout the performance, keeping the audience attentive and engaged."

"My job, that I'm fortunate to do, is to tell stories and give them back to the people they belong to," Dietz says of his remarkable playwriting career and the aims of "Rocket Man."

If asked to compare "Rocket Man" to any other theatrical performance, a simple response would not suffice. Incredibly creative and daringly different, be prepared to embark on a voyage into those secret spaces within the human mind most of us could never unlock.

"Rocket Man" is showing at The Alice Holsclaw Theatre, Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., through March 25. Tickets are available through the Arizona Theatre Company Box Office. Student Rush tickets are available for $10, one hour before each performance to students with valid ID. For more information, phone 622-2823.