In The Oldest Boy, the newest work from the visionary playwright Sarah Ruhl, faith and family are put at odds when a three-year-old boy is recognized as the reincarnation of a high Buddhist Lama. Tradition requires that the boy begin the monastic life as soon as possible, a revelation that anguishes his father, a Tibetan-born restaurateur, and his mother, a Midwesterner torn between her respect for her husband’s culture and her maternal instinct.

The Oldest Boy utilizes song, dance, and puppetry to tell a story of mingling cultures, spiritual seeking, and parental heartbreak. With gentle humor and compassion it enacts the central struggle of any mother’s experience: accepting that loving also means letting go.