The RMHS Drama Club put on Still Life With Iris for the 2023-34 fall play. The original play was written by Steven Dietz, an American playwright, director, and teacher. The play was performed on October 27th, and 28th and on November 3rd and 4th in the Rocky Mountain High School Auditorium. Tickets were $12 for adults, $10 for students, and $8 for children and seniors, and were available on rmhs.booktix.com. The run time was roughly an hour and a half.

Still Life With Iris follows a young girl, Iris, as she attempts to regain her memory with the help of her friends. The play is set in the fictional land of Nocturno, where the citizens work tirelessly every night to make everything in the world, ranging from wind that whistles and thunder that claps to leaves that fall and flowers that bloom. 

The people of Nocturno keep their memories in their coats, called Pastcoats, and when the coat is damaged or taken, their memories fade or disappear altogether. Iris is approached by a man named Mr. Matternot, who tells her that the Goods, the rulers of Nocturno, want to add a perfect girl to their collection of perfect things and that Iris is that girl. He tells her she must come with him, and in an act of intended mercy, takes Iris’ coat, so that she won’t remember her friends and family that she must leave. 

Over the course of her stay with the Goods, Iris grows not only bored of being surrounded by one of everything but also curious about where she came from and the button of a coat that she was given before going to Great Island, the home of the Goods. She sneaks away from Mr. Matternot and the Goods and makes her way to the island where she meets her two friends, a trapped pirate named Annabelle Lee and a young Mozart. With these two friends, Iris makes her way back to her home, regaining her memory and solving one or two mysteries along the way.

This was the first RMHS play I’d been to and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what the drama club had been working on for the first quarter of the school year. The costumes, sets, and of course the acting, were all made even more enjoyable to see when you know that they were all made and done by the students themselves.

One of my favorite parts of the costumes was the Pastcoats. Every character had their own coat with different designs on them, and many of them correlated with their job in Nocturno. I think this was a really cool way of developing the setting and story of the people of Nocturno. The costumes for The Great Goods were also very fun to see. Each of them only wore one shoe, as it was the one perfect shoe of that type, there was one crown, and only one cape and one robe. Throughout the play, you could see the two switching parts of their costumes, taking turns wearing the perfect version of each thing. 

I also greatly enjoyed seeing the sets that the drama club made. It was easy to see how much time and effort had to go into preparing for the play based on how many set pieces there were. A giant barrel was made with water at the top for the scene when Iris and her friends play in the rain, several versions of Iris’ dinner table were made that would illustrate the regaining of her memories, and a tunnel with lights and unwanted things were made for when Iris and Mozart meet Captain Also, Third String, and Ray. These are only some of the big pieces that were made for the play, there were many other set pieces made that all did an amazing job of immersing the audience in the story.

The characters were, of course, the best part of the show, as they brought the whole story to life. Each actor did an amazing job on their part, and both the minor and major characters were a lot of fun to watch. The interactions between Iris, her friends, the Great Goods, and the people of Nocturno were fun, heartwarming, and hilarious to see.

Though all the showings of Still Life With Iris have passed, I would strongly suggest going to any of the future musicals or plays put on by the RMHS students. It’s so fun to see all the hard work that has gone into the production and to watch a story unfold that you may have never heard.