"Incorruptible is a smart, sassy and very dark comedy"..."Hollinger plays it as broad farce and the fine cast at Silver Spring Stage play right along with it in this hilarious production. ... It all adds up to a situation where multiple plot lines converge and things get funnier – and more outlandish – as we proceed. ... Director Leta Hall keeps the pace moving swiftly and keeps the mood at the right temperature throughout. " --- David Cannon, Montgomery Sentinal, July 17, 2008 Read the Article

Silver Spring Stage presents the fast-paced, antic “dark comedy about the dark ages” Incorruptible, by Michael Hollinger, directed by Leta Hall and produced by Pauline Griller-Mitchell. Money and miracles among monks and malcontents in Medieval Europe were never funnier in this madcap farce. Incorruptible will run weekends July 11 to August 3, 2008.

Silver Spring Stage is located in the Woodmoor Shopping Center, lower level (next to the CVS) at Colesville Road and University Boulevard. Ticket prices range from $13 to $18. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday matinees on July 20 and August 3 at 2:00 PM. Tickets can be purchased at www.ssstage.org. Information is also available by calling (301) 593-6036.

Award-winning playwright Michael Hollinger studied music then traded in his viola for play writing, but retained the rhythm of music in his works. He used point and counterpoint to good use in his 1996 hilarious examination of corruption and redemption in Incorruptible. In the comedy, monks and nuns will resort to any means necessary, including thievery, to gain the attention of the faithful through the miracle working of saints. The play is actually based on real events as it was common in Medieval Europe to steal saints’ body parts. In this case, the object is St. Foy, a real 13 year old girl martyred in the fourth century, who remains popular in Europe and Latin America. Forced by the failure of their patron saint to perform miracles, the monks justify the means – trafficking in body parts – for the ends of supporting the poor. Incorruptible pokes fun at how we can compromise our convictions while finding the true miracles. As George Bernard Shaw wrote: “A miracle, my friend, is an event which creates faith. That is the purpose and nature of miracles. They may seem very wonderful to the people who witness them, and very simple to those who perform them. That does not matter: if they confirm or create faith they are true miracles.” Incorruptible is a true miracle of laughter.

It's A.D. 1250, and the monks of Priseaux, France, are in a financial bind. The monastery's patron saint (St. Foy) has not produced a miracle in thirteen years and the pilgrims, as well as the local people, have stopped coming looking for assistance and paying an obligatory donation. Ironically, even Abbot Charles (Ted Schneider), Brother Martin (Craig Miller), Brother Felix (John Stange) and Brother Olf (Vincent Rowe) have a hard time believing in their patron. Brother Felix returning from Rome learns that a convent led by Abbess Agatha (Sally Cusenza) claims to have the true remains of St. Foy and she is producing miracles – leading a peasant woman (Kathie Mack) to snatch back her “penny” for devotions. When a murdered Jewish money changer arrives on their doorstep at the same time a one-eyed, itinerant minstrel Jack (Jose Guzman) and his wife Marie (Robin Covington) stumble through town, Brother Martin hits upon the idea of selling off the monastery's graveyard full of bodies and suddenly things begin looking up as they traffic in the sale of "saintly" heads, feet, and collarbones. Until the Pope announces he will be making a visit to see their incorruptible – a deceased holy person whose body doesn’t decompose – which unfortunately they don't actually possess. The comic antics must be seen to be believed!

The production team includes Chris Curtis (Assistant Director), David Gorsline (Stage Manager), Andrew Greenleaf (Set Design), Jessie Slater (Light Design), Robin Covington (Costume Design), and Sonya Okin (Props Design).

The Stage's 41st anniversary season opens with the 2008 One-Act Festival (Aug. 15-Aug. 31), followed by full-length plays Dinner with Friends (Sept. 26-Oct. 19), Third (Nov. 7-Nov. 30), holiday show A Little Princess (Dec. 13-Dec. 21), Arms and the Man (Jan. 9-Feb. 1), A Bad Friend (Feb. 20-Mar. 15), columbinus (Apr. 3-Apr. 26), As Bees in Honey Drown (May 15-June 7), The Mousetrap (June 26-July 26).