One of the smallest theaters in Brooklyn is presenting a giant of a comedy.
Nick Jones and Rachel Shukert’s “The Nosemaker’s Apprentice: Chronicles of a Medieval Plastic Surgeon,” is that rare spoof that is not only a delicious satire, but also a comedy packed from tail to snout with guffaw-inducing one-liners.
The comic landscape of “The Nosemaker’s Apprentice” is a wellspring of possibilities. The setting: Medieval England, a vicious and cruel place (how vicious and cruel? Several of the characters confess that they were actually orphaned even before they were conceived.
The most comic of the play’s conceits is its seeming plausibility: returning warriors from the Crusades would have certainly needed the services of a “nosemaker” such as Wulfric.
From this humble jumping off point, the plot begins its absurd send-up of human vanity. Wulfric (the amazing Corey Sullivan) needs an apprentice, so he heads to the Ivanhoe Workhouse for Criminally Impoverished Boys and takes Gavin (Eric Gilde) to be his assistant.
Gavin proves to be up to the task, quickly learning all of Wulfric’s secrets (“Bring me the semen of a griffin!” is actually an instruction to “boil some water”). And he also quickly falls in love with Wulfric’s daughter, Amelia (the stunning Molly Ward), telling her, “You are the most beautiful, and the only, woman I’ve ever seen!”
But before that love can be consummated, Wulfric sends his protege to the Nosemaker’s Academy of Vienna, where he will fine-tune his craft under Professor Ulrich (also Sullivan), who, like Wulfric, is a genius surgeon, but also a little bit off.
“Listen to your hands,” Ulrich tells Gavin. “Do not listen to your clients. Do not listen to your colleagues. Do not even listen to me, except for just now, when I said listen to your hands.”
Gavin, of course, is destined for even greater things, so Ulrich sends him to finish his training in France, which is filthy and disgusting (the local restaurant is called Cafe Gruel. “Let me tell you about our specials!” the waiter says before reciting a list of gruel entrees).
Eventually, Gavin is hired by the Queen of France (Sullivan again!) to be her personal plastic surgeon, though that doesn’t go too well either.
Gavin eventually escapes — but everyone is dead, except Amelia, though now she is a syphilitic prostitute who has lost her innocence, her decency and even her nose.
Gavin restores the nose just in time for the couple to be burned at the stake as heretics — the perfect comic conclusion.
Jones and Shukert’s script is the best American spoof since “SUV: The Musical,” but so much of the action might have fallen flat without the tireless work of Sullivan in his three roles.
Channeling a mixture of William Shatner and John Gielgud (that is to say Christopher Lloyd in “Back to the Future”), Sullivan turns in a comic performance that chews up the scenery.
The best example? When Sullivan, as Wulfric, screams the secret of nosemaking to Gavin, “You must learn to contain your emotions!”
A perfect performance in a delightful play.
“The Nosemaker’s Apprentice,” at the Brick Theater [575 Metropolitan Ave., between Lorimer Street and Union Avenue, (718) 907-6189] through May 23, 8 pm. Tickets, $18.
