Theater Review: OTHER DESERT CITIES (CV Rep)
by Jason Mannino on April 24, 2025
in Theater-Palm Springs (Coachella Valley)
CV Rep’s Other Desert Cities is nothing short of revelatory. John Robin Baitz’s lacerating family drama, set in a chic Palm Springs home but echoing across decades of American political history, finds fresh fire in this masterful production directed by Philip Wm McKinley. Gorgeously acted and beautifully designed, this staging not only does justice to Baitz’s text — it reclaims it as a vital piece of commentary on the seductive illusions and buried wounds of American conservatism.
At its core, Other Desert Cities is a play about the cost of silence — the silence demanded by loyalty, by legacy, and most insidiously, by politics. The Wyeth family, former darlings of the Reagan era, are locked in a cold war of their own, where ideology is weaponized as both shield and sword. It’s a portrait of a conservative family haunted by a past they refuse to fully acknowledge, preferring instead the comforting clarity of party lines over the murky complexities of truth.
As Brooke Wyeth, the liberal writer returning home with a memoir that threatens to detonate the family’s carefully maintained myth, Dawn Cantwell delivers a performance of brittle intelligence and seething heartbreak. Her confrontation with the family’s deep-rooted denial is both deeply personal and sharply political — she’s a daughter demanding emotional honesty in a household that’s built its identity around suppressing it.
Lois Robbins, Bruce Sabath, Dawn Cantwell
Polly Wyeth, played with stunning control and force by Lois Robbins is the embodiment of old-guard conservatism: charming, vicious, and obsessed with appearances. Her patriotism borders on pathology, and the way she rationalizes deception in the name of “protecting the country” hits uncomfortably close to the rhetoric we still hear in right-wing circles today.
As Lyman, the family patriarch and former GOP ambassador, Bruce Sabath gives a performance of devastating restraint. Lyman is a man who once believed in the promise of Republican nobility — and now quietly bears the weight of all that was compromised in its name.
Susan J. Jacks, Dawn Cantwell, Bruce Sabath
The always-watchable Susan J. Jacks as the brassy, recovering-alcoholic aunt Silda offers some of the show’s most biting comic relief, while also grounding the emotional tension with her moral clarity. Rounding out the cast, Luke Wehner as younger brother Trip is a breath of fresh air, delivering one of the play’s most humane and level-headed perspectives — an essential contrast to the more ideologically entrenched family members.
McKinley directs with a surgeon’s precision, never letting the dialogue devolve into polemic. Instead, they draw out the humanity in each character, making the political all the more painful because it’s so deeply entangled with personal regret and loss. The result is a production that feels intimate and volcanic at the same time — a family drama that doubles as an autopsy of American conservatism.
The cast
The set design by Jimmy Cuomo is a marvel of mid-century, desert luxury: a pristine, sunlit Palm Springs living room that exudes calm but conceals emotional landmines. There’s a coldness to the elegance — the kind of curated sterility that reflects a world where truth is buried beneath aesthetics and ideology. The lighting and sound design work subtly but effectively to heighten the play’s ever-tightening grip.
Though written in 2011, Other Desert Cities feels eerily prescient today. The play interrogates the mythology of conservative America — the insistence on order, tradition, and moral high ground — and reveals how those values can be used to suppress dissent, even within one’s own family. It is a pointed exploration of how conservatism often conflates silence with strength, and shame with patriotism.
Dawn Cantwell & Susan J. Jacks
In an age where political tribalism continues to fracture families and erode empathy, CV Rep’s production reminds us just how much damage is done when ideology replaces intimacy. And it asks, with devastating clarity: what truths must be told, no matter the cost?
This is a production that doesn’t just stage a great American play — it resurrects it with a searing urgency. CV Rep has delivered one of the most emotionally intelligent and politically relevant theatrical experiences this season. It’s a must-see for anyone grappling with what it means to love your family — and your country — when the two no longer see eye to eye.
All photos by David A. Lee
Other Desert Cities
Coachella Valley Repertory
68510 East Palm Canyon Dr in Cathedral City
Wed & Sat at 2 & 7; Thurs & Fri at 7; Sun at 2
ends on to May 4, 2025
for tickets, call 760.296.2966 x115 or visit CV Rep