Incorruptible Play Review

Incorruptible The play, Incorruptible, is full of deceit, irony and just a little bit of morally wrong acts committed by Christian monks. The first act begins with Charles the head monk of the church is praying to the relics of the Saint Stella. A peasant woman is trying to sneak in a few prayers without paying the church a penny to pray. Martin, another monk of the church, and Charles are arguing because their church is not getting very many donations and not making very much money.

Saint Stella’s relics that these Brothers honor as their church patron have seemed to stop performing miracles. They all hope that Brother Felix, yet another monk in the church will bring the Pope to their church to see their Saint and honor it, hoping that it will help Saint Stella to perform miracles. Unfortunately, Brother Felix is unable to bring the Pope to their church. The Pope had already gone off to a different city because it was rumored that a monk with one eye sold the real relics of Saint Stella to the church of the city of Barbados. This insinuating that the ones the Brothers have is not the real Saint Stella, but a fake.

The peasant woman comes back and wants her donation of one button back. The rumor has spread threw the city that the Saint Stella bones all the followers of that church have given pennies and prayers to is a fake.

The monks hear the story from the peasant woman and strike up a deal to get the “one eyed monk” who delivered the “real” relics to the church in Barbados, to come to their church and want to know why he stole their relics. This one eyed monk who sold the relics happens to be the peasant woman’s son-in-law, who is a sort of jester type character. He tries to get away but then the monks accuse him of taking their relics, they steal his 30 gold pieces and force him to tell him what it was that he did. Jack, the jester’s name, tells the monks how he dug up a body from a grave and gave the bones to Abess, the head nun of the church in Barbados, who also happens to be Charles’ sister. With this being reveled that the bones jack sold where fake Martin, comes up with the idea of digging up all the graves in their church graveyard and sell the body parts as real Saints.

This eventually gets out of control. Martin manipulates Charles into doing most of these terrible things and forces Jack to become a monk and dig up bodies. While Jack is playing the role of monk he sneaks his girlfriend Marie into the church for some, frolicking, as it was put. Little do they all know that Marie is the long lost love of Felix, the reason he became a monk for this church was because of Saint Stella. Through out the play Felix and Marie miss each other just by moments. By the end of the play Martin has gotten caught up in making so much money that he has gotten cocky.

Wanting for the Pope to visit so badly he writes to the Pope telling him that they have an Incorruptible, which is a body that does not decompose the same as others because they are so holy. The Pope says he will come but the problem is that these Brothers do not have an Incorruptible. For awhile Jack did not want to get caught sneaking Marie in so he hides her in a sack. Martin mistakes Marie as the “Incorruptible” he sent Jack to go find. In the end Marie goes off with Felix to do what they planned on doing before and the church still has Saint Stella who does perform another miracle of giving Jack back is one eye.

This Play was one that seemed to be set back in the times, but had a modern twist to it. The theme of this play could be said to be a few different things. Personally, there seems to be a lean toward having faith. Through out the play they all through out quotes from the bible about having faith, and that without faith you won’t get anything you want or need. Through out the play all of the monks at one point in time had lost some faith in their patron Saint. Only when all those who lost faith started to have real faith in Saint Stella is when it was seen that miracles were happening.

Sometimes we need to go through some rough patches to get to what we really want in the end. The important thing to remember however is that you’ve got to have faith in what you believe in and not give that up. The theme of faith was not the only thing that was pretty consistent through out the play.

Between act 1 and act 2 there was only one costume change and it was not very different from the first one. The peasant woman’s costume does not change from act to act, or if it did it was very subtle and I did not notice. Marie’s costume changed a little but it was still the same idea of a torn skirt, looking some what of a collected mess. The monks changed the colors of their gowns to show that they had money now.

The blue outfits made the monks look more fun and showing that they were expensive. This tells the audience that since the last act they’ve idea of pretty much hustling body parts has been working out pretty well for them. All these actors in this performance were both funny and did a fantastic job. My favorite I think would have to be Felix, played by Geoffrey Zokal. What was so funny about his character was his comments made under his breathe almost. Maybe it was were I had chosen to sit, but I sitting first row right in front of the skeleton head I heard almost all of the little comments made.

When Martin said something that was just ridiculous or Charles was agreeing to some ridiculous plan he had a funny way of trying to stop it, but not trying to hard. He really showed how much he cared for the relics and that showed to me that he had an attachment to this saint for a reason. His character did have a reason to be attached to this Saint and Felix did well with praying to it, when Martin wanted to get rid of Saint Stella Felix wraps the bones and “sleeps with Saint Stella”. Geoffrey seemed very into the role as well. He looked like he was having fun with it and that in turn made it more enjoyable for myself. It was an enjoyable dark comedy for a non-theatre major, such as me. It had the “dark” because these monks believed that these old bones of dead people, who quite possible might not even bee Saint’s can actually cure a woman with an oozing lump on her back. The whole play is comical but they are completely serious. What they are saying is funny to us, but the play is supposed to show a light side of the seriousness of the topic.

For example, during the play when Felix is freaking out about Martin and Charles getting rid of Saint Stella’s bones, he runs to the alter and takes the bones with him. That was very funny to me, but for the playa it was showing his devotion to his faith. That Felix was one who still had faith in his patron saint, and that she would help him get his “love” back. The title of the play means a body that does not decay like many others because of its holiness. It is a little ironic that Marie is the girl that Felix talked to jack about. Felix was under the impression that Marie was dead, drowned.

She ironically goes through most of the play not even knowing that Felix is there and vice versa. She was to pretend to be the Incorruptible for a sort while and she technically was thought to be dead, two different times.

Incorruptible is a funny dark comedy that I would recommend for others to go see. This was not a show that I had to try at all to stay away during. I had fun with the show, the cast was fun and the performance was done well.

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