Review: 'Sister Myotis' is hilarious, brilliant Southern comedy

Steve Swift, center, plays mega-church deaconess Sister Myotis in “Pre-sent Pres-ent 8: Home for the Holidays” at TheatreWorks through Sunday.

Memphis character actor Steve Swift is overdue a leap to prime time. Someone find this man a rich producer to send him and his alter ego, Sister Myotis, on a national tour. This town just isn’t big enough for the outlandish Southern-fried grande dame he has created to save our wayward souls.

His imposing church lady has returned to the TheatreWorks stage under the mantle of Voices of the South, bearing a new chapter in the gospel according to Myotis.

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Christopher Blank, theater critic reviews: “Sister Myotis,” “Mahalia,” “Oklahoma” and “Buddy.” Watch »

Steve Swift, center, plays mega-church deaconess Sister Myotis in “Pre-sent Pres-ent 8: Home for the Holidays” at TheatreWorks through Sunday.

In “Sister Myotis’ Church Retreat,” the audience joins the deaconess and her two dutiful assistants Sister Velma Needlemeyer (Todd Berry) and Sister Ima Lone (Jenny Odle Madden) for a new-member meeting of the women’s auxiliary.

Due to a scheduling conflict, however, the assembly is forced to convene in the bomb shelter of her 80,000-member mega-chuch. During the surprise five-day lock-in, Myotis tells the captive audience that she’ll cover all the bases of good Christian housewifery, from coping with toenail fungus to dealing with children, “a.k.a., God’s little challenges.”

The thought of being trapped for a week with a zealous autocrat won’t faze Swift’s local cult following. His lighthearted lampooning of church culture is as perceptive as it is unrelentingly funny. The pace never slows, a testament to Swift’s concise writing and Jerry Dye’s fast-moving direction.

As a rule, Myotis finds men (her well-trained husband Hershiel, in particular) to be barely tolerable if not outright unnecessary. Intimacy is an onerous thing in a Christian (read: her own) household, and the more modest the effort expended on it, the happier she’ll be.

“There is nothing that can be accomplished with sexy underwear that can’t be accomplished by opening your flannel housecoat a little,” she advises the young ladies.

While Velma and Ima have never been much more than Myotis’ harried syncophants in past productions, they blossom in “Church Retreat.” Madden’s childlike Ima Lone, “with the brain the size of a squirrel’s,” is an excited helper, eager to get the attention she craves. As Velma, Todd Berry plays the silent, unruffled foil who can say a thousand words with a twist of the lips or the flex of an eyebrow. In this script, both Berry and Madden’s distinctive characters finally seem like they are Myotis’ essential cohorts.

“Sister Myotis’ Church Retreat” — marriage, children, death and good-housekeeping tips from a woman with a grandiose appreciation for her own sacrifices in life — is an uproarious evening of brilliant Southern comic writing from a master satirist.

— Christopher Blank: 529-2305

“Sister Myotis’ Church Retreat”

8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 7 at TheatreWorks.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students. Call 726-0800.

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