Stage

An unwashed lad could be an unlikely small-town savior in The Diviners

By Len Fonte

Laced with spiritual overtones, The Diviners is a delicately fashioned look at the second American Dream: the quest for redemption. It’s currently being given an earnest staging by Appleseed Productions at Atonement Lutheran Church, 116 W. Glen Ave.

Holy allegory!: From left, Navzad N. Dabu, Joe Pierce, and Jane Garlow in Appleseed’s The Diviners.

Set in an Indiana farm town at the depths of the Great Depression, James Leonard Jr.’s play centers on sweetly simpleminded adolescent Buddy Layman, who nearly drowned in a river at age 4 in an accident that killed his mother. That tragedy left him mentally challenged, with a terror of water that prevents him from getting wet under any circumstances. For this reason, Buddy never washes, and as a result suffers from severe ringworm.

Still, he is treated tenderly, almost reverently, by the townspeople. They see the damaged youngster, who speaks of himself in the third person and has an uncanny ability to find underground streams with a dousing rod, as touched by God.

When a disillusioned ex-preacher, C.C. Showers, arrives in town looking for honest work and a clean slate, he finds his regeneration intertwined with the fate of the hapless Buddy. Tortured by doubt, Showers can’t bring himself to serve the townspeople that hunger for spiritual guidance, so he pours his energy into helping Buddy conquer his demons.

Written when Leonard was a college freshman, The Diviners is clearly a young man’s play. The playwright invests the tiny town of Zion, Ind., and its inhabitants with a heavy load of religious symbolism. Character names have an allegorical sheen. When they speak, characters use a type of language that can be called American poetic, a countrified version of rural English that signals a theatrical mixture of the lunatic and the mystical.

For the most part, however, the citizens of Zion are engaging enough to undercut the most heavy-handed touches. Despite echoes of Steinbeck’s Dust Bowl masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath, The Diviners doesn’t have a political agenda, and all the talk about redemption masks a despair that is unresolved at final curtain.

The Diviners can be a stirring ensemble piece and indeed Appleseed’s production features some engaging acting. As the wayward preacher, Joe Pierce gives an appropriately oversized performance as a man who has taken off the collar, but cannot shake the charisma that brands him as a man of God. As Buddy’s father, Ferris, an intense John Brackett does some lovingly wrought work, speaking with a growling, crackling locution.

Navzad N. Dabu is an endearingly enthusiastic Buddy, although at times his performance lacks the quirks and details that let us see into Buddy’s mind. Appearing even younger than the scripted 18-year-old, Katelyn Remington is nonetheless affecting and appealing as Jennie Mae, Buddy’s older sister. Doug Rougeux does an amusing turn as sympathetic neighbor Basil Bennett.

Although this production contains a series of genuinely moving sequences, occasionally the fragile mechanics of The Diviners show through. A familiar subplot involving a shy young man afraid to ask a girl to a dance is underdeveloped in the script and underplayed on stage. At times, stage compositions obscure the intimacy of the moment. The climactic riverside scene unfolds in a series of heart-stopping snapshots, but then goes on a bit too long.

Director-designer Jon Wilson has provided an interesting set composed of leveled playing spaces, but the production never quite achieves the parched, sweat-drenched feel of rural America circa 1932. The stage lighting doesn’t clearly define playing areas or help create a mood. Defending his water-phobic son, Ferris proclaims that “half the world’s made of dirt,” but it isn’t really evident onstage. Even the unwashed Buddy never seems grimy, and his clothes are barely rumpled.

Overall, however, Appleseed’s staging of The Diviners offers an engaging and sometimes powerful examination of the power and the limits of human relationships. ❏

This production runs through Feb. 10. See Times Table for information.