Rust Belt presents brilliant ‘Naomi,’ ‘Ignatius’

July 10, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

There really are only two good reasons to justify reviving Christopher Durang’s 1979 anti-Catholic screed “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All To You.” One would be turning it into a social/cultural artifact by contextualizing “Ignatius” within the actual period this somewhat dated one-act was originally written (and performed). The other would be to use Durang’s indomitable nun as a bravura showcase for an actress with the gravitas to pull it off.

Robert Dennick Joki, director of the current Rust Belt staging of “Ignatius,” obviously didn’t care about the play’s time capsule aspects (this isn’t “Hot Nun Time Machine”).

If anything, the few attempts at updating the script (e.g., substituting Lady GaGa for Zsa Zsa Gabor in Sister Mary’s list of famous sinners destined for hell) seem half-hearted at best. Instead, Joki clearly relished the opportunity to present Molly Galano, star of his superb 2010 Oakland Center for the Arts production of “Wit,” with another juicy assignment. On that count he’s succeeded brilliantly.

As the despotic Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows teacher who disses Pope John XXIII for messing with her beloved “infallible” dogma, pontificates on the dichotomy between Immaculate Conception and Virgin Birth, sings the “Ave Maria” (in Latin, no less) and mourns the loss of castrati (especially since Thomas, her current pet student, would make such a wonderful candidate for that barbaric, formerly church-sanctioned practice), Galano sends shivers down your spine even while you’re laughing your tuchus off.

When a group of embittered ex-students surprise Sister Mary during a school assembly by staging an impromptu — and uproariously funny — Nativity pageant replete with a camel named Misty, she’s forced to confront some unpleasant truths about her, uh, teaching methodology. Yet, the beaten but unbowed nun somehow manages to turn the tables on her accusers. In the process, Durang’s satire on the perceived hypocrisy of Catholicism turns into a nihilistic gallows farce of epically bloody proportions.

It’s all a bit much (was the climactic gunplay truly necessary?), but Galano and a game supporting cast (Hunter Thomas, Brooke Slanina, Marisa Zamary, David Romeo and Rick Morrow) ensure that boredom never enters the equation. Especially memorable are Thomas’ dutiful acolyte Thomas and Slanina whose monologue about the inefficacy of prayer is unexpectedly moving.

Sharing the bill is another, considerably shorter Durang piece (“Naomi and the Living Room”) which feels like a skit from the old Carol Burnett variety show rewritten by the “Pink Flamingos”-era John Waters. In an absolutely fearless, ultra-stylized performance, Nicole Zayas makes monstrously unhinged, possibly insane matriarch Naomi glibly, terrifyingly amusing. And as Naomi’s deer-caught-in-the-headlights son and mousy daughter-in-law, Morrow and Zamary prove to be able comic foils.

“Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You” and “Naomi and the Living Room” run through Saturday at the Calvin Center for the Arts. For tickets, call 330-507-2358.