Red Noses

WIZARDS OF SCHNOZZ Goeden and Ferrick get some face time.

Photo: Chris Ocken

As the black plague ravages Europe, a pious young clergyman named Flote feels a calling from God. With tacit approval from a disinterested pope, Flote assembles a ragtag band of sorry souls to combat despair—and the plague itself, personified as a black-cloaked ghoul in a Pulcinella mask—with clowning.

Brit writer Peter Barnes’s 1985 play sounds on paper a bit like an earnest, potentially patience-trying cousin of Godspell. And that’s not far off the mark, except that our patience reserves remain miraculously full. Whether viewed as a critique of the church (the pope worries that Flote will drive Catholics “out of the salvation business”) or of the Thatcher-Reagan regimes—either view is supportable—Barnes’s work feels utterly, surprisingly relevant in this inventive and kinetic staging.

Hawkins’s 18-actor production makes great use of both the Strawdog ensemble and vets of the House, Factory, Hypocrites and other storefront stalwarts; it’s possibly the canniest assemblage of Off Loop talent since last year’s Hypocrites Our Town. Punctuated by cheekily co-opted renditions of ’80s tunes by the likes of Billy Joel and the Outfield (credit arranger Mike Przygoda and the self-accompanying cast) and featuring Aly Reneé Graves’s astute modern-dress costumes, Red Noses is a major achievement for Hawkins. He skillfully enhances Barnes’s theological themes and tangible-disease schema (“sickly yellow” has never been so literal as in this production’s visual metaphor) with an exhilarating pop-cult playfulness that his performers wholly embrace. Sarah Goeden delivers mute, wide-eyed brilliance as the good-est spirit of all, while John Ferrick finds unexpected nuance in his lead role as the noble priest. In his inviting, winningly unadorned performance, Flote hopes.

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