"Flowers for Algernon" a play by David Rogers adapted from the Daniel Keys Novel.

Few stories break your heart and lift it at the same time, and David Rogers brings this one to the stage with every bit of that power intact. Charlie Gordon is a gentle 32-year-old bakery worker who wants more than anything to be smart. He gets his wish through an experimental operation that has only been tried on one other patient: a laboratory mouse named Algernon.

What follows is pure theater magic. We watch Charlie bloom, discovering books, ideas, love and the painful truth about how the world has treated him. His teacher, Alice Kinnian, the ambitious scientists Strauss and Nemur, and the coworkers who once laughed at him all see Charlie with new eyes. Then Algernon begins to change, and the audience starts to fear what comes next.

Rogers keeps the staging simple, with drapes, a few set pieces and four playing areas, so every bit of focus lands on Charlie’s extraordinary journey. Drama teachers and community theaters have turned to this script for more than fifty years, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a gift for actors and an unforgettable experience for anyone who reads it.