Damien Chacona as a defiant Moses and Jim Meske, Sherilyn Connelly and Stefanos X as the cowering Egyptians in the incredible Ten CCommandments at the Darkroom Theatre. Photo by Rink.

Impossible Productions, Inc. is presenting yet another impossibly hysterical satire on its Dark Room Theater stage. This gem is entitled The Ten Commandments: a Live Comedy of Biblical Proportions. It is not necessary to have seen the classic Biblical epic film, The Ten Commandments; but it sure does help. It helps because - that way - the brilliance of the satire really shines through. But the send-up stands perfectly well on its own, without any prior knowledge of the film or even the Bible itself. You can be a total philistine and utter heathen, but still enjoy this spoof on the Old Testament.

My only criticism is in the length. One’s butt tends to go to sleep due to sitting on a hard chair for long periods of time and having only one intermission to go out for a breath of fresh air. And remember to pee before the play begins and/or during the intermission, because the restroom is backstage - where you would no doubt disturb the actors - and therefore the audience as well - in your act of relief.

One of the happy features of the Dark Room Theater is that the audience is allowed – nay, encouraged – to bring in their own beverages and foodstuffs. My escort Marvin and I make it a habit to bring in a tiny portable bar in a suitcase for martini making. Regarding the consumption of edibles, however, it is discouraged to bring noisy comestibles that would compete with the actors’ recitations.

The theater is very small and therefore intimate. And the stage is even smaller – which makes a full-blown widescreen epic such as The Ten C’s all the more comparatively hilarious. There are very few props and no scenery, thus forcing the viewer to focus on the actors without the luxury of background.

The costumes are gorgeous (kudos to Erin Ohanneson). The writing is simply shameless in its delightfully deliberate use of anachronistic colloquialisms.

For instance, I have found no usage of the word “okay” in the Old Testament, yet it occurs quite frequently in this version. And you will definitely chuckle along with the characters onstage when you hear one of the Egyptian folk constantly called “Ikea,” when modern times calls up images of cheap contemporary assemble-it-yourself Nordic furniture.

Playwright/ Director Jim Fourniadis is Cecil B. Demille directing the action and narrating from his cubbyhole at the side of the theater, where we can only see his face as he periodically fills us in on Bible history and the Chosen People. This is mostly an ensemble cast, with ten actors portraying 20 characters.

Moses is perfectly played by Damien Chacona in an explosive voice that comes off as a combination of Charlton Heston and Howard Cossell. Seti, the Egyptian pharaoh and enemy of Moses and the Jews, is played with uber-melodramatic, scene stealing, brilliant overacting by Jim Jeske, who in his spare time plays Dathan the slave-driving, internally self-loathing Jew who convinces the Israelites to form a golden idol (while Moses is up on the mount getting the expressed word from God in a commandment to NOT have idols). Ramases, the son of Seti and sort of stepbrother of Moses, is played by a sniveling, jealous Steffanos X (wearing more eye makeup than Cleopatra). And speaking of Nefertiri (were we?), Kharmara Pettus plays that Cleo-like part to its sultriest best, wishing to marry Moses or have him assassinated – whichever would work out best for this selfish sexpot. Meliza Banales is rather Freudian in playing both Moses’ mommy and wifey, and is surely the archetype of “the Jewish mother,” knowing full well when she sets her baby to float away in the Nile, he will never write or call.

I thoroughly enjoyed this politically incorrect polemical parody that puts the hee-hee in Hebrew. The Ten Commandments comedy runs Feb. 29 to March 22, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. at the Dark Room Theater, 2263 Mission Street. Oh, and by the way, there is an Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not miss this play.”