Theater Review - Wade in the Water

The symbolism falls like a torrential downpour in The Diviners, Theatre in the Square’s Depression-era religious allegory. Director Alan Kilpatrick slogs through the script’s heavy-handed, manipulative moments to find some genuinely affecting grace notes, but playwright Jim Leonard proves a little too in love with the work of John Steinbeck, especially Of Mice and Men.

The Diviners tracks an improbable but warm friendship between ex-preacher C.C. Showers (Thomas Piper) and mentally challenged young Buddy Layman (Chris Moses) in rural Indiana. As a “diviner,” Buddy can find well water with a divining rod and predict rainstorms with uncanny accuracy. Memories of his mother’s drowning give him a violent aversion to touching water, keeping him unbathed and prone to itchy rashes.

Moses lays it on thick as Buddy, but there’s probably no way to underplay the character, who coos over birds, childishly scratches a lot and refers to himself as “he” (as in “He can’t help it, he’s daffy”). Even as written, Buddy feels like little more than a vehicle for preying on audience sympathies. Kilpatrick nevertheless builds suspense when C.C. uses his sermonizing gifts to coax Buddy to wash and cure what ails him. The scenes feel as tense as watching someone disarm a bomb.

With penetrating eyes and a rolling voice, Piper provides a terrific performance as a disillusioned man of the cloth. The Diviners suggests that C.C.’s spiritual denial can be as destructive as the religious zealotry of some of the townsfolk. At times the elemental imagery feels like rough poetry, with water standing for spirituality, earth for human nature, and metal for industrialization. But The Diviners never lets you forget its big ideas. Characters can’t turn around without bumping against a metaphor.

Theatre in the Square’s The Diviners fares best with the quiet, slice-of-life scenes, such as Caroline Masclet’s gentle portrayal of Buddy’s sister. As Buddy’s father, Christopher Ekholm does some of his best work, finding the role’s wry humor without undermining his melancholy severity. The Diviners never feels more shallow, though, whenever it strives for symbolic depth.

Curt.Holman@creativeloafing.com

The Diviners plays through June 19 at Theatre in the Square, 11 Whitlock Ave., Marietta. Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 and 7 p.m. $18-$34. 770-422-8369. www.theatreinthesquare.com.