The Diviners Wells Up

The Diviners, by Jim Leonard, Jr. is minimalist play that evokes your emotional participation in every scene, even or perhaps especially, when it is performed by high school students.

The story is ageless - a deeply poignant psychological study of how tragedy can affect survivors and how one person can affect many.

Buddy, played by the very talented Isaak Berliner, opens and carries us into a drought stricken “mythical southern Indiana town of Zion” with a population of only forty citizens. It doesn’t take long before the audience is aware that Buddy has had a life altering experience and begins their roller-coaster ride into sympathy, rolling over in anxiety, feeling the weight in the depths of his anguish, climbing toward hope then plummeting into fear, sorrow and regret. Clues that there might have been a happy ending must be investigated through one’s personal view of the after life.

I urge you to see the play when it comes to your neighborhood. Why? Because too few visual arts illicit compassion in this modern era, though it may be the only emotion left that can change us for the better and bring us closer to our spiritual selves without the tool of religion.

The acting abilities of these teenagers was staggering – so professional I was duped into thinking they must have brought in some college students! Ferris, played by Mark Felando, and his stage daughter Jennie Mae, played by Allie Reidy invite a newcomer into their lives. Interestingly his name is Mr. Showers, played by Reid Wood. The playwright's technique of using the character name to misdirect ,causes one to suspect that he is the one to break the drought when we first thought Buddy was the chosen one. Only when the play is over do we realize his name is his curse… but I’m not going to give anything more away!

Big kudos to the cast, crew, stage designer James Feinberg (see image), production team and director / drama teacher at Palos Verdes High School, Nicole Thompson.