The Oldest Boy : A Play in Three Ceremonies

In this moving exploration of parenthood, an American mother and a Tibetan father have a three-year-old son believed to be the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama. When a Tibetan lama and a monk come to their home unexpectedly, asking to take their child away for a life of spiritual training in India, the parents must make a life-altering choice that will test their strength, their marriage, and their hearts.

The Oldest Boy is a richly emotional journey filled with music, dance, puppetry, ritual, and laughter—Sarah Ruhl at her imaginative best. A meditation on attachment and unconditional love, the play asks us to believe in a world in which sometimes the youngest children are also the oldest and wisest teachers.

“Gorgeous . . . Extremely imaginative and hypnotically beautiful.” —Marilyn Stasio, Variety

“[An] emotional tsunami . . . An extraordinary story [from] a singular new voice in American theater.” —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“Ms. Ruhl’s drama [The Oldest Boy] is among the most easily accessible from this poetic, venturesome playwright . . . It is marked by Ms. Ruhl’s inquisitive intelligence, clean-lined eloquence and spiky humor.” —Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

“Bewitching, ingenious and seriously moving.” —Linda Winer, Newsday