The early closing of the Conspirators’ 2023 production of “Commedia Divina,” proved useful, giving this …erm … highly original company an opportunity to retool “Commedia Divina” into a production worthy of Election Year 2024.

I can’t claim I wasn’t warned. I mean, the very title is “Commedia Divina: It’s Worse Than That, An Immorality Play.” You can’t read that title and walk in expecting Carol Burnett, right? I was further cautioned by my seatmate (a Conspirators veteran) that the Conspirators’ style is “an acquired taste.”

In fact, The Conspirators work exclusively in “The Style” – a highly theatrical performance mode developed by movie stars Tim Robbins and John Cusack from the techniques of Ariane Mnouchkine, Commedia dell'Arte, Kabuki, Bugs Bunny cartoons and punk rock.

In COMMEDIA DIVINA, “The Style” features easy-to-change (it happens alot) costumes from Kit Medic (they/them), with Kate Akerboom’s (she/her) in-your-face over-the-top makeup. Together, one hardly needs Sid Feldman’s he/him words or William Bullion’s (he/him) direction … but trust me, you’d miss them if they were deleted.

As they almost were when the video for the Fourth Circle refused to play … but the Conspirators are a professional troupe, and neither a misbehaving media clip nor a broken butterfly net caused so much as a hiccup.

Maybe I should go back and tell you the story huh?

Start with Inferno, the first (stanza) in Dante’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy, in which the poet Virgil escorts Dante through the Nine Circles of Hell. Dante intended the Inferno to illuminate the contrast between reality and fantasy, between existence and illusion, and show the suffering of the damned at each circle. The Conspirators do a masterful job of not only scrambling these concepts, but of showing us how well that snarl mirrors contemporary life.

Dante’s guide through these Circles is Virgil; in “Commedia Divina” Fr. Virgil is immaculately (sic) played by Corin Wiggins (they/she/he), who guides, not Dante, but Malady Traitor Greene, a suburban business heiress from northern Georgia, played with lunatic frenzy by Christine Watt (she/her). Any similarities to a certain Congresswoman from  Georgia are purely coincidental - not!

The play opens with Malady Traitor Greene hysterically soliciting Fr Virgil for insight into the dreams/visions she’s been having. And as we descend with them through these Circles we begin to not only sympathize with Greene’s derangement, we too become infected with maniacal insanity, expressing itself as riotous and uncontainable laughter.

The Conspirators do their job well: by the time we exited the theater the entire sold-out audience was rampantly unhinged. In fact, if you were anywhere near 3914 N Clark Friday night you may have glimpsed a group of seething lunatics absconding into the street.

We descended with Malady and Fr. Virgil into the first circle of hell, past an Amazon packaging assembly line where all the employees are writhing with the pain of overfilled bladders, waiting eternally for a break that never comes. The next circle took us to a meeting of Karens, who can’t seem to agree on how to do good, or anything. The chair, a Karen herself, suffers damnation in managing a meeting filled with complaining, obstructionist Karens. Another circle finds the seductress Covida (Kelly Opalkoshe/her) inveigled and infected one boyfriend after another. Dramatic moments were often punctuated by a drumroll, but onstage percussionist Dakota Norman did more than simply beat the drum; he and his sticks were most definitely active members of the cast.

The Circles continued down to the uproarious "Ron Paul's Drag Race", with Travis Barnhart’s (he/him) sidesplitting appearance as Senator Mitch McConnell hitting it off with Liza Minelli. Liza serenaded us with a retooled version of “Maybe Next Time”. Throughout the production various demons, imps, Karens and ghouls were brilliantly enacted by Eva Andrews she/her; Emily Fernandez (she/her); Tess Vincentshe/her; Mitch Maguirehe/him, Jimmy Dwyer (he/him); Kelly Opalko (she/her); Lex Mann Turner (they/he) and Harper McCoy (she/they).

 Mike McShane’s (he/him) lighting and Sebby Woldt’s (they/them) sound design were integral to the production. Choreographer Meghan Lyndham (she/her) had her work cut out for her! but rose to the challenge, coordinating well with Violence Designer Libby Beyreis (she/her). Christen Krasch (she/they) was kept busy as Assistant to Stage Manager Matt Bonaccorso (he/him) as well as with A/V; I’m sure the media glitch in Circle 4 was an opening-night foible, and they’ll have it under control for the next performance.

“Commedia Divina” was written (and retooled) by Sid Feldman and directed by William Bullion, with assistant Elena Avila. Feldman and Bullion co-founded The Conspirators in 2016.

Beneath the unrelenting comedy “Comedia Divina” was amazingly erudite. Laughter is often an effective approach to commentary on the dire issues facing all of us. It’s clearly no accident that the production is timed to coincide with the election: the last words of the night were from Fr. Virgil as he was churlishly yanked offstage: “Please Vote!”

Highly recommended, “Commedia Divina” runs at Otherworld Theatre through November 10, with special late night performances October 31 and November 1, 2, 8 and 9, as well as an Industry Night Election Special performance on Monday, November 4.