Around the year 1250, the monastery in Priseaux, France, is experiencing hard times. It has been 13 years since the relics of Saint Foy lying on their altar have worked a miracle. Pilgrims are no longer paying pennies to pray at her feet.
Now another church claims they also have the bones of Saint Foy, and those relics are profitably curing pilgrims left and right.
The College of St. Scholastica’s “Incorruptible: A Dark Comedy about the Dark Ages,” streaming online this weekend, is basically two situation comedy episodes back-to-back, each with its own comic complications and confusions.
Actually, those would be back-to-back black comedy situation comedies.
When a one-eyed juggler named Jack (Tyler Russell) and his wife Marie (Shelby Holley) show up to entertain the monks, some truths are suddenly revealed that suggest a way for the monastery to prosper again.
Let me just say it involves the monks getting their hands dirty after a dangerous theoretical debate: If a man loses his soul, then exactly how much would he stand to profit?
Brother Martin (Jacob Barto) is a brutal pragmatist, focused on the bottom line on his ledgers and quoting scripture only when he needs holy words to support an unholy — not to mention unwholly — proposition.
Brother Felix (Mitchell Gertken) is a true believer. Add to that the fact that playwright Michael Hollinger is a theater professor at Villanova, the oldest Catholic university in Pennsylvania, and we suspect that in the end, faith is the answer.
The fatal decision falls to Luke Moravec’s Father Charles, who with Machiavellian clarity links corrupt means to a sanctified end. Sometimes to give the needy a hand in Priseaux, you have to give a church in Milan a foot.
The play’s title comes from the holy grail of saintly relics, the body of a saint so holy, its body refuses to decay, which is the comic centerpiece in the second half of the play.
The way the cast takes the absurdity of these situations to their wickedly logical conclusions is a large part of the fun, as is having medieval monks act like contemporary sit-com characters.
Everyone wears masks with clear windows, and if their voices sound muffled at times, it is not a major concern because the streamed play is closed-captioned. The site’s menu links to the program for the play.
Kevin Seime is responsible not only for the monastery set, replete with stained glass window and tapestries, but also the light and sound.
The production was filmed and edited by Rob Larson and media studies students using multiple cameras. There are times when the camera is not on all the characters who are speaking, but I appreciate they are filming a situation comedy for the first time.
What also should be appreciated is that this was the first, last and only public performance of the play. While we enjoy what this cast and crew have provided, we should also acknowledge what they have been denied because this is how plays have to be performed in the time of this pandemic.
If you ‘go’
What: College of St. Scholastica’s “Incorruptible: A Dark Comedy about the Dark Ages”
When: Available for streaming March 4-7
Tickets: Tickets are $10 per person or $35 for a group at spotlight.css.edu
Lawrance Bernabo is a theater and arts reviewer for the News Tribune.
The Link LonkMarch 05, 2021 at 04:45AM
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Theater review: St. Scholastica's 'Incorruptible' tickles the funny bone - Duluth News Tribune
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Funny
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