The Putnam City North High School Drama Department will present its production of The Curious Savage at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 30, and Friday, Dec. 1, in the school’s Little Theatre.

The Curious Savage, by John Patrick, is the warm-hearted tale of Mrs. Ethel Savage, a fabulously wealthy and energetically charitable widow. When she begins to pursue her youthful dreams and begins to give away much of the family’s wealth to anybody who wants to make his hopes and fantasies come true, her three greedy, adult stepchildren commit her to a mental sanitarium, "The Cloisters."

Here she meets a variety of quirky and endearing characters - the slightly unbalanced patients of this psychiatric institution. Among them is Hannibal, who plays the violin with force and gusto and a total lack of talent; Jeffrey, whose imaginary facial scars have disfigured his mind, not his body; Florence, who is convinced her dead little boy is still alive; Fairy Mae, a remarkably plain girl with romantic fantasies; and Mrs. Paddy, who paints but has little to say beyond her list of hates.

Despite the revelations about these inmates’ past lives, they are charming and use a rather whimsical logic to keep a hurtful world outside. Eventually they all appear saner than those outside the walls of the institution.

Mrs. Savage’s presence seems to bring out the best in them all, as well as the kindly staff member, Miss Wilhemina. Dr. Emmett, the psychiatrist, soon realizes that Mrs. Savage, though a bit eccentric, is not insane.

As the hunt for her millions gets underway with several surprising twists, all three money-hungry stepchildren are led on a merry chase. The end of the play finally brings Mrs. Savage her freedom and her selfish stepchildren their just rewards. The loud mouthed Senator, Titus Savage, is caught digging up the president’s petunia bed; Samuel Savage, the pompous judge, gets a broken arm and leg when a chimney falls on him, and the snobbish socialite Lily Belle is arrested for biting the police. 

In the end, the audience is left with a feeling that the neglected virtues of kindness and affection have not been entirely lost in a world that seems motivated at times only by selfishness and dishonesty.