The Diviners

by Jim Leonard

Book Overview

Drama / 6m 5f / Unit set w. platformsWinner of the American College Theatre Festival this marvelously theatrical play is the story of a disturbed young man and his friendship with a disenchanted preacher in southern Indiana in the early 1930s. When the boy was young he almost drowned. This trauma and the loss of his mother in the same accident has left him deathly afraid of water. The preacher set on breaking away from a long line of Kentucky family...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0573608377
• ISBN13: 9780573608377
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Concord Theatricals
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Perhaps the best play of all times

Back in the early 80's, I ushered for several performances of "The Diviners" while at Hope College. I knew at the time that the final scene was extremely important for me to grasp, and I studied it with rapt attention. The emotional impact of that scene was profound to say the least. At the end of one performance, with a packed house, when the lights went out and the curtain went down, the audience sat in stunned silence. At first it seemed like a perfectly appropriate response, but after a very long moment with the whole audience holding the silence as if of one mind, somebody started clapping and the whole auditorium exploded into a standing ovation. Very powerful. In the final scene, the preacher and the boy attend to something important in the water until the preacher allows himself to be distracted by the cackling crowd on the shore. That scene is metaphorically the most important lesson anyone can learn. It is the essence of success and failure. Of doing vs. appearing. Of remaining focused on the substance and letting the critics babble on as they are prone to do. I can't count the many times that scene has come to my mind when, in life, I've been faced with the choice to attend to the substance, or get distracted by the egotistical nonsense that surrounds it. To cultivate the flower, or get lost in the weeds whose sole purpose is to starve the flower of its life.

"I'm flying C.C."

THE DIVINERS is a play set in Zion, Indiana during the time of the Great Depression. Buddy Layman is a mentally-challenged boy that seems to bring joy and hope to most people he meets. He loves his sister, Jennie Mae, and his father, Ferris, very much. One day a stranger named C.C. Showers passes through Zion looking for work and food. C.C. takes an immediate liking to Buddy and vice versa. C.C. is able to relate to Buddy in ways that most people aren't. The two become close friends and C.C. soon finds himself as Buddy's mentor and teacher, too. Jennie Mae is attracted to C.C., and though he likes her, Jennie Mae isn't the only single girl near Zion that finds C.C. a catch of a man. He's rather distinguished with a bit of mystery about him. His relationship with the people of the town changes drastically when they learned that he was a former preacher who has given up preaching. That knowledge changes everything and brings about a crisis that leads to a horrible tragedy. Several of my friends rank THE DIVINERS as their favorite play of all time and after having seen and read the show myself, it's not difficult to see why. The play follows a simplistic design and doesn't require much in terms of set, props, and costumes. The roles in the play are rich, deep, and full of life. The title of the play, THE DIVINERS, takes its name from a word for people who search and find water. The title works on both a literal and metaphorical level and reflects, while reflecting the overall simple tone of the play. The conflict of the story is reflective of issues that faced us in the past that are still relevant today: knowledge vs. wisdom, love vs. indifference, etc. THE DIVINERS is an example of American playwriting at its finest. Highly recommended for anyone who likes the theatre and even for those who don't.

Diviners Warms Your Heart and Revives Your Mind

The Diviners is written with a peerless awareness of the theatrical process and a stirring intimacy. The action flows naturally, without blackouts, and directors, actors, and designers all have the opportunity to push their limits through the balanced framework of this powerful story. The story, which concerns an Indiana family raising a traumatized child who forges a friendship with a disillusioned ex-preacher in a land of frenzied religious zeal during the Depression speaks allegorically of both universal human nature and contemporary American society just as well as it stands alone as a period piece. It is a masterwork of American theatrical style. I highly recommend The Diviners: A Play in Two Acts and Elegies.