Prodigal Son by John Patrick Shanley

Prodigal Son is a passionate, semi-autobiographical depiction of a young man on the razor-thin edge between salvation and destruction. From the Oscar, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Doubt and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea comes a highly personal, explosive, and portrait-like drama. Prodigal Son is a passionate, semi-autobiographical depiction of a young man on the razor-thin edge between salvation and destruction. Set in the mid-1960s, the story follows Jim Quinn, a 15-to-17-year-old working-class Irish-Catholic kid from the Bronx, who is given a scholarship to a prestigious, elite boys' preparatory school in New Hampshire. Gifted, poetic, and fiercely intelligent, Jim is also intensely alienated, violent, and battling a profound loneliness. As his self-destructive behavior tests the limits of the school's strict rules, two faculty members and the headmaster find themselves caught in a high-stakes debate: is this brilliant, rebellious young man a rising star to be nurtured, or a disaster waiting to happen? Reservation recommended - free admission - donations welcome.