Review by Michael C. Moore for Kitsap Theatre Artists
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Key City Public Theatre’s ‘Mercy Falls’ is farce with a heart, fueled by tremendous comic performances

PORT TOWNSEND — Jeni Mahoney’s comedy “Mercy Falls” could well have been titled “Trading Places.”

Except that title was already taken.

But the tidy little farce — which opened Nov. 29 at Key City Playhouse, eventually to run in repertory with the fourth renewal of “Spirit of the Yule” — is indeed about two people who trade places.

Marcy starts out as a tragicomic character; Wanda is comitragic.

Or maybe it’s the other way ’round.

Their collision in Wanda’s hospital room, and their respective transformations, make for an intriguing and funny 75 minutes of non-holiday holiday entertainment.

Trying to tell you about what happens in “Mercy Falls,” without giving away any of its delightful surprises, won’t be easy.

Suffice to say, there are: Martin Heidegger references galore; silly people in silly costumes; copious artificial Christmas trees; badly translated German; Hospital Dread; a maladjusted bed; four seconds of smoking; an enigmatic doctor who’s inspired either by the Wizard of Oz or Major Major Major Major … or both.

And way more absurdities and profundities and moments of inspired physical comedy than you think could fit into one act.

Mahoney’s contrivance is based on a bit of Heidegger: “With ripeness, the fruit fulfills itself.”

If that sounds a little heady for comedy, just remember what Monty Python did with philosophers (including Heidegger, who was, according to them, a “boozy beggar who could think you under the table).” Mahoney cushions the hospital walls of her careening comedy with wit, wisdom and a genuine empathy for both Marcy and Wanda and for the parade of hilariously drawn hospital stereotypes who attend them.

Marcy (Consuelo Aduviso) somehow defies her well-founded fear of hospitals to visit Wanda (Michelle Hensel), her favorite self-help author, who’s checked in for treatment of some undisclosed ailment. Their awkward conversation is interrupted by visits from various hospital staff (all peopled by Jennifer True and Tomoki Sage) and by the patient on the other side of the partition (voiced by Maggie Jo Bulkley in a performance that elicits both laughter and cringes of sympathy), who spouts Heidegger in German in between horrific groans and exaggerated snores.

In the course of it all, we find out that neither woman is really what she seems — or, at least, what she thinks she seems. Symbolically, Wanda climbs off the bed and disconnects from her IV contraption, as Marcy replaces her. Wanda’s aura of power and celebrity dissolves as it is revealed what she’s really doing in the hospital, and Marcy turns a fit of temper into a life-changing stroke of good luck.

You don’t think I’ve told you very much, do you? In fact, I’ve probably already told you too much. In “Mercy Falls,” a lot of the fun is in the discovery.

The hospital-room set is simple by necessity — it’s entirely removable, strapped up in front of the bulkier “Spirit of the Yule” decoratives. There is enough room, thankfully, for Sage’s physicality and Aduviso’s uproarious “dance” with the aforementioned IV rig.

Director Denise Winter decorates and animates every millimeter of the confined space, and gets tremendous performances from all five cast members — including Aduviso and Sage, who are also cast in “Spirit of the Yule.”

Aduviso’s Marcy is perfectly pitched, timid and guileless without ever seeming unintelligent. Hensel is just as good at portraying Wanda, who’s built a veneer of strength around a career that she maintains in the most ridiculous way. They’re both very funny, in very different ways.

“Mercy Falls” is a little spare for a main-stager, especially if you’re coming to KCPT from much farther away than the Port Townsend city limits (indeed, with a Hood Canal Bridge stop added to the travel time, it took me longer to get to the theater than it did to see the show). But it’s stocking-stuffed with fun ideas, ingenious plot switchbacks and comic performances.

It made me laugh, more than enough to make the trip worthwhile.