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CVLT digs in with dark comedy 'Incorruptible'
(by Herb Hammer - March 26, 2009)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
CVLT digs in with dark comedy 'Incorruptible'
A monastery in 13th-century France sets the stage for Michael Hollinger's witty farce "Incorruptible." It opened last Friday at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre.
The play is subtitled, "A Dark Comedy About the Dark Ages." And dark it is for the monks who inhabit the monastery. They have run out of cash. The skeletal remains of St. Foy lying on the altar isn't drawing crowds anymore. There hasn't been a miracle for 13 years. Raising cash by charging a fee to view and to pray at the feet of St. Foy is their only way to bring in money. Now, they have been reduced to accepting a button to let someone through.
Mr. Hollinger's farce takes a while to warm up. A farce with a handful of monks making their way around the stage hasn't brought laughs so far.
Act 2 is another story, and should be. Desperate for money, the monks resort to digging up graves, boiling the corpses and selling off parts as saints in order to raise money and fill the coffers of the church. Now they can help the poor and feed themselves.
This idea was brought to them by a minstrel who found the rival monastery doing the same thing.
Before this, the praying pilgrims had high-tailed it off to the rival monastery run by the abbot's sister where there is a duplicate St. Foy set of bones sold to them by a one-eyed, grave-robbing minstrel, which is causing the blind to see and the lame to walk. Their coffers are overflowing.
Most of this brings laughs. Making fun of the church is something that wouldn't have been done too many years ago. The church, however, has loosened up and is having as much fun as the rest of us.
During the 13th century, if there's a dead holy person that doesn't decay, this is an incorruptible, and so the title.
After a major fuss, the minstrel's young wife is talked into becoming an incorruptible and lies very still on the altar. This is pure farce, as the girl is on again and off again and is very funny indeed.
She goes in and out of the bag which brought her in with the rest of the corpses. While she is on the altar, you wonder why the monks don't recognize her. She danced for them earlier.
The monks march in and out, but suddenly the sister of the abbot turns up and starts a row.
Mr. Hollinger finally gathers the players, and magically everything turns out fine.
The cast at CVLT struggles with the staging. Even funny man Bob McCoy can't get the audience involved. Call it opening-night jitters or confused directing. Surely, the play will come together the rest of the way.
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