Mother Hicks

Set in southern Illinois during the great Depression, this play centers around the unlikely friendship between Mother Hicks, an outcast old woman and a headstrong orphan known only as Girl, in search of her people. Mother Hicks is a witch…people say. Their story is told through the eyes of Tuc, a deaf-mute young man, eloquent in the language of his silence, who “hears every word with his eyes.”

The play, written by Susan Zeder, one of the nation’s leading playwrights for family audiences, explores the roots of prejudice and looks at fear bred of misunderstanding. The tale, told partly through poetry and sign language, chronicles the journeys of these three, who find themselves and each other, in a troubled time. In doing so, it speaks to the redeeming power of acceptance and love.