Incorruptible is a cross between Brother Cadfael and Cyndi Lauper – we step back in time about 1500 years to find out that Money Changes Everything. We see Europe ages ago and we ask the question, are we really any different. Incorruptible plays through April 21 at Lakewood Playhouse.
The Middle Ages is the second of the three traditional divisions of Western history: Antiquity, Middle Ages and Modern. The three ages were not a great time to be having a great time, unless you were stinking rich and very powerful. Even if you were, you had to live through relentless wars, the black death and ridiculously bad sanitary conditions, not to mention atrocious medical practices.
As we come into the theater, we see a compass beautifully rendered on the floor. The monastery, where all the action takes place, is in France in a provincial nowhere kind of place and everyone is starving, including the monks. The monks have the bones of a previous saint but no miracles have happened in years; therefore, no pilgrims (the rubes) want to pay to see the relics and pray for a boon (a merciful healing of a foul misery or bringing a corpse back to life). What to do? Their bread is mostly sawdust, they sometimes pay with a simple button for lack of coin, and the bad weather has only produced a few limp vegetables, almost inedible. But it’s all about to change.
A towering wandering bard, Jack (Guy Simpson) with 30 gold pieces and his petite common law wife Marie (Danielle Shope) comes to town to see the relics but can’t unless they pay a penny. They won’t and then the greed begins to pour in.
Devin Felix, is the Abbot or monk in charge. He was once a strict leader who tried to control the sinners. (Did we mention sins?) The Abbot looks up to God for help and finds himself looking at a seemingly seven-foot-tall stranger, Jack and his petite common law wife/prostitute. Jack has 30 gold pieces and is eager to find a place to set up so he can ply his trade – jester/clown/musician and con man. Then the mayhem begins. Did we mention old dead bodies?
Brother Martin (Wade Hicks) is not going to be made a fool of, so he forces Jack to become a monk (in a much shorter robe than the other monks). Together they find a convincing way to rip off the public.
Rather simple-minded Brother Olf (Devin Felix) and Brother Martin (Wade Hicks) the savvy treasurer, try to come up with ways to make some real money but can’t. But, ah, you must see the play to see the route they take. Brother Charles (Dennis Rolly) is another of the monks but naively unconscious of the perfidy.
A peasant woman (Nicole Lockett) is a conniving woman; she is looking for a way to get a saint’s bones to upend her lowly position as the washer woman, and also the mother of Marie, the consort of the conniver.
Sister Agatha is the shrewish, unpleasant older sister of Brother Martin and shows up at his monastery to find out how he’s making money and she wants a cut. The always wonderful Sherry O’Hare is Sister Agatha, the head of the nuns’ convent. She’s shrewish, overbearing and persistent; She has a loud piercing voice. As the older sister, she knows that she has the right, nay, the RESPONSIBILITY to correct her brother’s faults.
An indulgence is forgiveness of part of your time in hell for a big violation, usually paid for good works and prayer. Although in this instance, there were no good works or prayer, just money or an important favor. An important rich man, for instance, could get his daughter an influential marriage so Dad gets a sizable dowry from the rich groom’s family or lush job for his son as a cardinal, a prince of the church, who votes for the next pope or another influential position. These were virtually and finally eliminated in later years.
Peg was raised Catholic in a family of seven kids and really appreciated the show. She went to Holy Rosary school in Tacoma from third through eighth grade and then on to Saint Leo’ s from ninth to two months as a junior, then on to Germany.
The set by Luke Amundson produced was minimal, but just the right amount. The times did not give a gluttony of luxuries to the regular Joes.
Director Erin Manza Chanfrau did a masterful job with a possibly unfamiliar time and setting. She had the audience laughing at bones, dug up dead bodies, and juggling. The costumes by Nick Fitzgerald were completely suitable for the lowly positions of the times.
Incorruptible, a Dark Comedy about the Dark Ages, runs through April 21. A Pay What You Can night is April 11. Evening performances are at 7:30 and Sunday performances at 2:30.
For tickets, contact the Box Office at 253-588-0042 or go to lakewoodplayhouse.org.
