The Diviners (play)

The Diviners is a play by Jim Leonard, Jr., about a backsliding pastor who befriends a mentally stunted 14-year-old boy with an intense fear of water.

The play was originally developed with assistance from the American College Theatre Festival and originally performed by the Hanover College Theatre Group, where it was awarded the "Best Play" award. The play premiered at the Circle Repertory Company on October 16, 1980.

The show is set in the small, mythical town of Zion, Indiana in the early 1930s, and the story follows the bond between mentally challenged and severely aquaphobic Buddy Layman and disenchanted preacher C.C. Showers, who struggles to relieve himself of his family heritage. The narrative centers on themes of religion, community, family, and loss, all seen through a collective push for a rebuilt church and in the ways that Buddy expresses his grief for his late mother, especially when translated spiritually.

The first elegy, told by Basil Bennett, a farmer and local doctor, and Dewey Maples, his farmhand, detail their accounts of what happened before and after the death of "idiot-boy" Buddy Layman. Basil describes the intense storm that came just a few hours before, whereas Dewey explains his franticness of reaching Buddy's father, Ferris, after the boy's death. Both accounts provide a symbol of change within the community. The audience is ushered into the story as Basil describes Buddy's uncanny "touch and feel for water".

Immediately after the elegy, the audience is introduced to Buddy as he searches (divines) for water for a well on Basil's farm. Luella, Basil's wife, refuses to believe that the boy can find water, but is disproven after Basil's farmhands, Melvin Wilder and Dewey Maples, find a vein in the precise area that Buddy directed them to. He explains that he finds water by feeling his mother's presence. Once the farmers leave, Buddy is set to sweeping the porch under the watch of his older sister, Jennie Mae.

Shortly after, Buddy sweeps into C.C. Showers—a stranger passing through Zion in search of food and work. After a moment of skepticism—and a brief scare on Buddy's end—Jennie Mae goes to fetch Ferris Layman, her and Buddy's father, to discuss employment. It is during the in-between conversation with Showers and Buddy that the audience learns of Buddy's late mother and lack of understanding of death.

Ferris, a mechanic, discusses with Showers, and Buddy is sent to walk around town with Showers' suitcases to keep him entertained and give the two privacy. Ferris compares children to weeds, saying that they're fine to do whatever they please without surveillance or concern for safety, much unlike cars, which he goes on to rave about. Showers withholds knowledge of his previous occupation from Ferris once it is figured out that he has no knowledge of cars whatsoever, and only reveals that he used to be a preacher in a moment of desperation. Ferris initially takes this as a joke, and immediately after, Buddy and Jennie Mae come back with Showers' now-empty suitcases. This causes a scene—Ferris blames Jennie Mae for Buddy's actions, saying she should have been watching her brother, to which she complains that she has no time for herself due to having to "parent" Buddy all the time. As C.C. is about to leave (now that his hopes for a completely fresh start are askew), Buddy stops him, which prompts Ferris to offer him a job and a place to stay. From this point on, C.C. works as a mechanic in Ferris' garage and quickly becomes very close friends with Buddy, as the two are able to connect to each other in ways that others do not.

The owner of the town's Dry-Goods store, Norma Henshaw, quickly learns of the new "preacher" in town and sets herself on bringing a Christian revival to the community, much needed since the burning down of the church. Luella warns against immediate trust in Showers and continuously questions his credibility, to which Norma responds with telling her to stop being doubtful of his arrival, reiterating that "the Lord knows how the town needs a preacher!"