“Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” directed by Stephanie Coble-Day, will open at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Other performances will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Coble-Day is looking forward to opening the performance season, she said.

The show starts with a woman (Jean, played by Megan Wiebersch) sitting in a cafe and a cell phone at the table next to her is ringing and ringing incessantly.

“She is just kind of confused as to why the man at the table with the cell phone is not answering the phone,” Coble-Day said. “So she gets up, answers the phone and then soon discovers that he’s deceased.”

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Megan Wiebersch, as Jean, answers the cell phone of the recently-deceased Gordon in "Dead Man's Cell Phone," the next production of the Hawkeye Community Theatre. The first show of the season opens on March 30 and runs through April 2.

Jean begins to feel connected to the man, Gordon (played by Rex Daisy), and forms a bond through his phone. She begins to tie up the loose ends of Gordon’s mysterious life. Jean herself doesn’t have a cell phone.

“She’s never really wanted to be that connected,” Coble-Day said. “But then she just becomes also very obsessed with the cell phone. It becomes her mission, almost like if she keeps answering the phone, then part of this man is still alive.”

Daisy, of Dakota City, calls the show a “quirky, dark comedy.”

“Gordon is a very self-centered, conceited man and is trying to figure out the fastest way to make money that he can,” he said.

Though Gordon dies at the start of the show, the second half gives him the opportunity to show the audience his perspective of his last day.

“I think adult audiences will find it entertaining,” he said.

Daisy has been acting in Hawkeye Theatre productions since 2013.

Lori Cassady, of Twin Lakes, plays Gordon’s widow, Hermia.

“My character’s kind of odd in the first half, kind of uptight,” Cassady said. “And then in the second half, she has too much to drink, so she talks way too much and tells all her secrets.”

Cassady has performed in several Hawkeye Theatre productions and said she likes meeting new people through the stage.

“Everyone is friendly,” she said. “You really get a bond with the people that you are in a play with.”

The show also stars David Pettinger as Mr. Gottlieb, Jordan Martin as Dwight and Brittany Thomas-Lamb as The Other Woman.

Next week’s production will also feature dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Reservations for the dinner, catered by Tea Thyme, must be made at least a day in advance. The dinner tickets and the show tickets are separate. A fish option will be available for Friday, Coble-Day said.

Reservations for the dinner can be made at 515-576-6061.

Tickets to the show are $10 and can be ordered at hawkeyetheatre.com or purchased at the door.