‘The Diviners' is ‘a pleasure to behold'

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Although Zion, Ind. — the fictional town at the center of Jim Leonard Jr.'s fable "The Diviners" — only has 30 or 40 residents, it appears that at least two of them possess the ability to pull off miracles.

Buddy Layman (Matt Jones), the young son of farm owner Ferris Layman (Robbie Jones), has a developmental disorder. His speech often lapses into the third person, and he's so scared of water (his mother died by drowning) that he refuses to bathe — a refusal that means his face and overalls reflect a permanent layer of grease.

Then again, this is Zion. This is "The Diviners."

Buddy also has the ability to walk around with a forked stick and unfailingly locate sources of water.

Played bravely and effectively by Jones, Buddy is the kind of character that wins over an audience quickly and carries them along through all of his ups and downs. There's a classic novel-like sweetness to him, and his simplistic view of the world is refreshing: humans live on the land, birds live in the woods, Jesus lives in the sky.

Even so, Buddy does not hold a spell over the audience to the same degree that C.C. Showers (Will Hardy) does. A preacher of 17 years, C.C. appears on Ferris's farm looking for a job — any job — that has nothing to do with saving souls.

We are inevitably swayed by this outsider, I think, for the same reason that the residents (particularly the women) of Zion are. C.C. is handsome, intelligent and, above all else, mysterious.

So imagine, if you will, that you are Sean Michael Fraser, an active local thespian directing your first play for Accokeek's Hard Bargain Players, and your actor playing C.C. — Brian Donohue, a HBP co-founder and one of the sturdiest local actors out there — has to withdraw from the play due to illness just two weeks before opening night. You really should try to imagine this scenario, because that's exactly what happened. (Donohue is said to be on the mend.)

Lucky for Fraser, Hardy was able to scrap together a near-miracle in real life. He not only learned the role of C.C. in just two weeks, he learned it exceptionally well. And though the original opening night, June 11, had to be moved to June 17, that very night's production revealed a success — both for Fraser and HBP.

In Zion, the farm boys are pulling in 70 cents a day. It's an age of light bulbs and tractors and sewing machines. It's the Great Depression — hard times — and Herbert Hoover is the butt of several jokes. As we watch Leonard's play unfold, we indeed think of the songs heard throughout the play. ("Amazing Grace" and "You Are My Sunshine" are two.)

Meanwhile, the way Norma Henshaw (portrayed convincingly by Juliette Chagnon) sees things is that the absence of money, in terms of priorities, ranks a distant second to the absence of faith. (For the rest of the women in Zion, on the other hand, the absence of cash clearly ranks a distant second in importance to the sudden appearance of an eligible bachelor.)

A candy shop owner and the town's most vocal Bible thumper, Norma remembers the days when the whole town — all three dozen of them — would gather at the church on Sundays and sing. Those days are gone.

Or maybe not. Not only is C.C. a former preacher, Norma observes, he also appears to have super-human powers. Even if he doesn't know it, clearly he has come for a purpose!

C.C., however, is pretty sure that purpose has nothing whatsoever to do with preaching, though it might have something to do with Buddy.

As it happens, Ferris's approaches to raising children and weeding are one and the same: Let them go.

So C.C. steps in as a mentor. He even convinces Buddy to place his dirty feet in some "itch juice," gradually breaking down Buddy's phobia.

The amphitheater at Hard Bargain Farm does not provide actors an easy place to act. Try to count the planes passing overhead and you'll lose track fast.

In spite of that, opening-night performances, across the board, were as solid as they were distinct. The cast of 11, in fact, seems to include as many standouts.

Talk about a natural: Robbie Jones, Matt Jones' father, has not acted since Sunday school. We only know, however, because the 43-year-old admitted as much in his program bio.

Sarah Ann Carlson was terrific as Jennie Mae Layman, Ferris Layman's sister, Buddy's caretaker and the only female who garners any attention from C.C.

As farmhands, Patrick Ogden, who played Melvin Wilder, and Dillon Kercher, who played Dewey Maples, more than looked the parts (which they truly did) and generated most of the laughs.

Leonard's play is a nice choice for Hard Bargain Farm. For example, when Buddy says he's going to run off in the woods, he really does. (Or, when he looks up through the treetops and says it's about to rain, you hope you are not about to witness a weird coincidence.)

"The Diviners" is not a particularly easy play to comprehend. It's moving, too, even if some of the sentiments feel worn out.

Mostly, it's a pleasure to behold — to sit back and witness everything clash together in the last scene.

Here, Fraser made a smart choice of adding some extra production (sound, mainly). The effects transformed the script almost like exclamation points would.

dmercer@somdnews.com

If you go

The Hard Bargain Players's performance of "The Diviners" will conclude at 8 p.m. June 24-26 at Hard Bargain Farm, 2001 Bryan Point Road, Accokeek. Call 301-292-5727. Go to www.hbplayers.org. Tickets are $10.