Monks make fun in 'Incorruptible'

Water is not changed into wine and loaves do not expand to feed five thousand, but a body is changed into bones and true love is found before the final curtain. This is all done with a light touch by a largely ensemble cast. What more could anyone want in a theater production?

It could be 13th century French monks struggling to feed themselves as well as the village’s poor from their monastery in Priseaux. Throw in Jack, the one-eyed juggling minstrel; in fact, entrap him into the priesthood. There’s a plot of sorts and two miracles. That’s “Incorruptible,” opening Thursday at Whidbey Playhouse.

This is a comedy, as characters dressed in brown robes with rope belts and a skeleton on an alter at the back of the set signal when the curtain rises. The comedy is both verbal and physical: half or sort-of Bible verses quoted as punchlines and mostly subtle hand and body motions by cast members. Jack performs two scarf juggling and insists on telling a priest and a pig joke: Some of the verbal humor is not so subtle.

Eric George, as Brother Olf, does a terrific job of playing simple and slow witted. Chris Kehoe, as Jack, is a conman, not so much clever as one step ahead of his peers. Jacqueline Davis doesn’t come in until the final scene as Abbess Agatha, but she immediately commands center stage.

Brother Martin (David Jackson) does dutiful well and Brother Felix (Warren Rogers) ably offers reluctant and uncertain about faith. He has a backstory that will tie together, as will Charles’, the abbot (Kevin Meyer), whose family past drives present decisions.

Micki Gibson, the peasant woman, and her daughter Marie (Diana Collete) also fit seamlessly into the whole.

The play’s title refers to Catholics’ belief that the bodies of some saints do not decompose after death.

For these monks, it is the miracle of marketing that gets them out of the mess they have created. They are desperate: their relic – Saint Foy, a skeleton on an alter at the back of a simple set representing the monastery’s chapter house – has failed to cure anyone in 13 years. Instead of starving, before intermission they have taken to grave robbing, boiling down bones and selling them as authentic relics: the head of John the Baptist, the feet of St. James, St. Andrew’s fingers.

The monks’ choice, to use corrupt actions to fund their ministry, is well portrayed by the typically fine Playhouse costumers (Andrew Huggins, also co-director). The monks are wearing wooden crosses on beaded necklaces at the post intermission opening, signs of their new prosperity. Their decisions will bring a visit from the pope, but that has upped the ante for showing a miracle to him.

It’s not a spoiler alert to write that backstories take center stage at the climax, or that St. Foy comes through with a miracle.

The preview night audience enjoyed themselves, laughing often. The Playhouse is offering another well-knitted production.

Dave Frazier is co-director and with Huggins designed the lighting, another Playhouse specialty.

“Incorruptible” is a 1996 play by playwright and academic Michael Hollinger. It is performed regionally around the country.

Performances are Thursday-Sunday through June 23. Information and tickets: whidbeyplayhouse.com.