Still Life With Iris

by Steven Dietz

Book by Steven Dietz

Genres: Plays, Theatre

97 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1998

About the author

Steven Dietz is an American playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Dietz graduated in 1980 with a Theater degree from the University of Northern Colorado. He is the recipient of the PEN U.S.A. Award in Drama (for Lonely Planet); the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award (Fiction and Still Life With Iris); and the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Award (The Rememberer). Halcyon Days is one of his other successful plays. Many of his plays are very political. He lives in Seattle.

Reviews

[Julie Piazza]

Read for my theater design fundamentals class. Cute and fun and whimsical children’s play. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would

[adelaide · Rating 3 out of 5]

the first play for my play book club! i really enjoyed this, basically my favorite genre of plays are ones that use magical realism and fantasy to do an extended metaphor. i thought the meaning was really sweet, i’d love to see it performed, and there were some banger lines. i also loved the visual of the still life. great stuff!

[edie roth]

oh my god this unlocked some core memories. there was a lot of this I didn't remember but the parts I did gave me goosebumps. also this would be a fun show to do again. someone let me play iris 2.0?

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like lots of Steven Dietz plays but not this one. It was confusing to read. I imagine it would be even more confusing to watch.


Good reads does not have the play Girls Weekend by Karen Schaeffer. I liked it and think it could be a possibility for our theatre.

[Madeline]

this is the play that coraline is based on-that fact made it more enjoyable, but after all it is a children’s play so it wasn’t my fav, very well done tho

[Ka’Meya · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a cute little play, a bit unorthodox but really cute <3

[Michelle Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What our memory leaves unfinished, our heart completes with ache.”
-Steven Dietz, Still Life with Iris


I often gauge how I am responding to a work of literature by how compelled I am to turn the pages. While I was a bit sleepy before reading Still Life with Iris, I am completely creatively invigorated after. I read the entire play in one sitting and was completely willing to suspend my disbelief and enter the fictional worlds of Nocturno and Great Island.

Still Life with Iris is Steven Dietz’s tale of a little girl named Iris and the people she encounters in both her “ordinary” life and in her life of captivity. While her relationship with her mother seems very pleasant; Iris is frustrated that her mother will not tell her why her father left. However, it almost immediately becomes clear that she is reaching the age where her mother is going to have to share the more difficult (and potentially painful details of the circumstances).

For me, perhaps the most compelling element of the play is that there is no dream sequence or “Wizard of Oz” moment at the end of the play where the experiences of the past 75 pages are chalked up to imagination, a dream or a fantasy. While the front of the script promises “adventure/fantasy/drama”, I think that a primary reason adults would enjoy accompanying children to the play is that, while the play is certainly fantastical, each element of fantasy or magical realism is justified and supported throughout the text. Additionally, Dietz uses stunning language and imagery rather than tired didactic moral teaching to express some of his most important issues and themes.

[val · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What our memory leave unfinished, our heart completes with ache.”

Despite this being a children’s play, it had a lot of sophisticated themes. A lovely read, and I really enjoyed the fantasy imagery. Also Mozart cameo???

[Anne Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am currently involved in this play at my high school! I am playing Iris and I really love the story. It was originally done as Children's Theatre, so naturally the characters, set, and costumes are very visually pleasing, but the events that take place contain a lot of situational irony and lessons that the adults will pick up on.

[Delia Kerr-Dennhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play is a very sweet fairy tale. It has dark elements, and lives wholly in the land of imagination. There is plenty of opportunity for abstract or impressionistic staging and creative fantasy design work.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seattle Children's Theater, a million years ago. Steven Dietz! Who knew?

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful scripts I've ever read.