Andy Baldwin and Deborah Brown. Photo by Glen E. Ellman.

From left: Trey Walpole, Andy Baldwin and David H.M. Lambert. Photo by Glen E. Ellman.

Andy Baldwin and David H.M. Lambert. Photo by Glen E. Ellman.

From left: Andy Baldwin, Trey Walpole and David H.M. Lambert. Photo by Glen E. Ellman.

  

Incorruptible

by Michael Hollinger

Presented by Circle Theatre

July 16 - August 15

at Circle Theatre
230 West 4th Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
817-877-3040

7:30pm Thursday; 8pm Friday; 3 & 8pm Saturday

Michael Hollinger, the playwright of Incorruptible, makes a profound statement in the playbill: "This sort of thing really happened."

Might he be speaking of a time when dramatists crafted farces that were both hilarious and smart, and when directors and actors understood the rhythms of such a work? If so, perhaps he peeked into the future and saw Circle Theatre's awesome production of Incorruptible, directed by Robin Armstrong.

It has pretty much everything you could ask for in a farce: The plot is just complicated enough, there is a surprising amount of food for thought among all the well-timed shenanigans and the characters cover the comedy spectrum, from cockeyed fool to downplayed straight man. And, the best thing about a farce set in the bowels of a medieval French monastery: No doors to slam (at least, not any that are slammed).

That's not to say there isn't farce-level zaniness. In this case, it comes from corpses being slammed around like the slabs of meat (and bone) they are. What's funnier than that?

In a 13th-century monastery in Priseaux, France, Martin (David H.M. Lambert) and Charles (Trey Walpole) are the alpha monks and Olf (Shane Strawbridge) and Felix (Justin Flowers) are underlings, and they all have a serious problem. The bones of their beloved St. Foy haven't produced a miracle in 13 years, and that means no money is coming in from the villagers.

When it's revealed that a set of bones posing as St. Foy's are churning out miracles in another town, the monks scheme to sell body parts from their graveyard to other monasteries, claiming they are from various saints. Caught in the middle of all this are a miracle-seeking Peasant Woman (Deborah Brown), her beautiful daughter Marie (Meg Bauman), the town's one-eyed jester named—get this—Jack (Andy Baldwin), and one superior Mother (Drenda Lewis) who accompanies an unseen Pope to the monastery. He has come because of reports that the Priseaux monastery has discovered a saint so rare its flesh has not decayed. In other words, an incorruptible (that's just one meaning behind the play's title).

Cleverly tucked into all the ensuing zaniness is genuine food-for-thought on the nature of faith, redemption, love and whether the ends justifies the means. Memorable one-liners and biblical references (such as King Solomon's "splitting the baby") abound. It all builds up to what has to be the single funniest scene on a local stage in ages: A brilliantly choreographed silent fight between Marie and Jack while Charles is, obliviously, praying on the altar of the "incorruptible."

That wouldn't be so funny if it weren't for Baldwin, whose physical comic instincts are spot-on, as usual. Even with that, he still finds a real person underneath the fool's outside layer of multi-colored clothing and juggling (in)ability. All the other actors are in fine form, as well. And there just isn't enough praise to bestow on Brown—there's a reason why she is often cast in the dim-witted matronly roles.

Clare Floyd DeVries has produced another marvel of a set in a challenging space. Down in Circle's basement theater, she has created something that has the desired effect of descending into a monastic crypt, with stone walls upstage and stone around the cumbersome columns that every designer has to deal with in this space. DeVries even adds wood beams among the light trusses on the low ceiling to complete the effect, as if they actually support a giant medieval structure above.

Armstrong tempers the fast, physical comedy with the play's natural and truly funny moments of storytelling. The result is a perfectly paced and balanced farce.

It's too bad that this kind of theatrical gold rarely transpires on the same stage. Which is exactly why you should make it your mission to catch Incorruptible, if only to bear witness that this sort of miracle can happen.