Dark comedy is an interesting genre. It is also known as black comedy and often deals with serious topics that are tough to openly talk about. It will make light of these issues in an attempt to bring much needed attention to the subject matter. 

In some cases, scripts will employ crude and vulgar material meant to shock and make the audience feel uncomfortable. This obvious assault on our senses is meant to slap us in the face with the controversial content so that we see it, acknowledge it and hopefully do something about it. 

In my case, it’s difficult to discern whether I like or dislike dark comedies because there is an enormous range of presentations. There are dark comedies I love and dark comedies that I scratch my head at and wonder, “What the hell was that?”

“Hand to God” now doing its one week run at the Forestburgh Playhouse is more of the latter for me. This straight two-act play takes place in a church basement where recently widowed Margery (Ginna Hoben) runs a puppet club that intends to further the church’s Christian ministry. 

The three teenaged participants in the club include her very shy and troubled son Jason (Wesley Slade), the cute love interest and neighbor of Jason, Jessica (Kat Harkins), and the oversexed, rude problem child Timothy (Nik Duggan). The church and ministry are supervised by the nice enough Pastor Greg (Edward Staudenmayer) who has eyes for the struggling Margery. 

Doesn’t sound so dark, right? Well, here it goes. Shy and painfully introverted Jason has a sock puppet named Tyrone. Not only does Tyrone take over Jason’s arm, he takes over the entire show! He is a fiendish creature who slews more profanities than Linda Blair in The Exorcist. 

Whether Tyrone is a manufactured creation of this troubled boy’s mind or a truly possessed entity of Satan is up for debate. This puppet’s rantings become commonplace and sometimes quite over-the-top for me. 

Of course, there is a hilarity to a cute puppet that throws out an F bomb at the most unexpected moment. That’s what makes it funny, but it can get old if it happens all the time. Not to be outdone by a demonic puppet, the storyline bounces along through dehumanizing bullying, inappropriate student/teacher relationships, a pastor hitting on the weakened widow whose hubby “ate himself to death” and some rather graphic violence perpetrated by the puppet and then by Jason on himself! 

There’s even a quite hilarious scene between Jason and Jessica that starts out tender and turns into a session of the two puppets having at each other. 

The confusion I may have with the writer Robert Askins’words and actions can in no way diminish the fantastic performances of this very talented troupe of actors. Mr. Staudenmayer can go from caring pastor to weird to protector and back again with ease and believability. 

Ms. Harkins is a sweet breakaway (with wonderful comedic timing) from the demented anarchy around her. Mr. Duggan reviles us with his spoiled punk kid who just can’t keep it in his pants. Ms. Hoben is a strong presence as the weakened Margery who has fabulous bouts of rage and sexual enthusiasm. But the praise must be showered upon Mr. Slade who plays the very demanding dual roles of Jason and Tyrone. 

He snaps from quiet, awkward kid to raving, Satanic beast from second to second. He had to be exhausted after this performance!

Director Scott Evans does a nice job of keeping this production on course and that’s no easy task because frankly I don’t know where it really goes. The abrupt ending suggests a mended and better mother/son relationship, yet the body of the story only touched on their relationship. The show ends and I did scratch my head a bit.  

The rude outbursts and ravings of Tyrone are supposed to incite us to speak our minds and not keep things bottled up. He wants us to be honest with each other. Tell it like it is. He also represents the devil that’s in all of us. The bad in all of us that gets blamed on the devil. “The devil made me do it!” as explained by this psycho puppet in a redundant prologue. And of course, in this particular case the “badness” and “inappropriateness” and “scheming” are present in a group of supposedly religious folks! Yes, there are lessons to be learned in this absurdly dark comedy, but getting to them will require some patience. 

“Hand to God” will run through September 1, 2024. For more info call 845-794-1194 or look them up at fbplayhouse.org.