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.