A Tibetan lama and a monk come to your house in the United States and say your 2-year-old toddler is the reincarnation of a Buddhist high lama and they want to take him away to receive spiritual training in India.

Door slam.

But in The Oldest Boy:  A Play in Three Ceremonies by Sarah Ruhl, that's not the reception those two holy men receive. Dad runs a restaurant in an unidentified American city and Mom is a white mom from Cincinnati but Dad is also a Tibetan-born immigrant and Mom has been studying Buddhism.

So no, as anguished as the mother is at the thought of losing her young son, she listens to what her visitors have to say. The test is, of course, if any of their story about her son holds up and trumps her love for her son and belief in the sanctity of a unified family.

Sophia Watt, who directs the production at Main Street Theater opening its regional premiere this Sunday, says she both wanted to work with Main Street and thought the script by Ruhl (Eurydice, In the Next Room or the vibrator play) was wonderful.

"Sarah’s writing is really stunning. It’s extremely poetic, also very funny and there's a certain dreamlike quality that's still very insightful. It's also just a beautiful story of what I think it means to be a mother, what it means to love someone and what it means to let go."

The child, as he has been in other theaters, is played by a puppet — in this case a three-foot tall one designed by Houston's own celebrated puppet master Afsaneh Aayani. The six-member cast consists of two puppeteers, two monks and mom and dad, Watt says.

Gala Tulku Rinpoche of the Drepung Loseling Institute of Texas: Tibetan Buddhist Temple and Meditation Center in Houston has met with the director and cast of this show as well as Main Street Executive Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden and its Director of Marketing and Communications Shannon Emerick.

"He kind of serves as a consultant," Watt said. "I was able to talk through how do you show some of the ceremonies. We had interesting conversations about what actually would happen in these Buddhist ceremonies. The actors got to sit down and talk to him about what it's like to be a Tibetan Buddhist monk. "

Watt said he told them "You'll never get all the ceremonies right but to me it's more important that it's a play and it's the play's message and more people get to learn about Tibetan Buddhism and to experience the story."

In the play the child is 2 when they recognize he is the reincarnation and 3 when he gets brought to to the monastery, Watt said. This is considered a very high honor in Tibet if your child is seen as a high lama, but Watt readily acknowledges that seen through a Western lens, this is hard to come to terms with. "In the play it's absolutely about how hard it is for the mother and in so many ways it's such a beautiful idea until it is your child."

The play is set in contemporary time. The first act is set in a major American city and then the monks show up in their monks robes, Watt says. Act II takes place in India in the monastery where people are wearing  traditional Tibetan ceremonial dresses and robes. Watt says she spent a lot of time on YouTube looking at Tibetan ceremonies and weddings.

This is a wonderful play if you want to be transported," Watt says ."It really does honestly look at this question of could you give someone up at their most vulnerable, who you love the most,  if you thought it was for the best for them. It looks at the cross sections of love and attachment and how they might not help each other.

"It's an examination of what it is to love someone and then let him go."

Performances are scheduled for April 2-23 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays  at Main Street Theater- Rice Village, 2540 Times Boulevard. For more information, call 713-524-6706 or visit mainstreettheater.com. $35-$59.