If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes only two actors to raise a town.

The town is Tuna, Texas and the two actors who bring 20 of its most unique citizens (and several canines) to life in the current Elkhart Civic Theatre production of “Greater Tuna” are Kevin Egelsky and Scot Purkeypile.

Not only is this serving of “Tuna” filled with off-the-wall characters who nevertheless are strangely familiar, it is a one hour and 45 minute (plus intermission) display of amazing quick change artistry, not only in costume but in a wide range of personae, all the more believable for their unbelievability.

Putting on a dress and a wig is only part of changing Egelsky from radio disc jockey Thurston Wheelis to besieged housewife Bertha Bumiller and her aunt, Pearl Burras, who is addicted to poisoning dogs, and changing Purkeypile from co-disc jockey Arles Struvie to Bertha’s cheerleader-wannabe daughter Charlene and her brother, dog-loving Jody, and her twin Stanley, a recent reform school grad.

The voices change, the physical demeanors slump or straighten and the faces alter ever so slightly to facilitate the appearance of yet another slightly skewed Tuna-ite. Even when slightly appalled by the chain-smoking Didi Snavely, owner of Didi’s Used Weapons (“If Didi’s can’t kill it, it’s immortal”), her husband, R.R, town drunk and frequent sighter of U.F.Os shaped like chalupas, and Elmer Watkins, head of Chapter 249 of the KKK, it is impossible not to award them the laughter they deserve, even if they sometimes feel a little too familiar.

Purkeypile can turn on a dime to deliver soft-hearted animal lover Petey Fisk of the Greater Tuna Humane Society and sociopath Stanley Bumiller, making both equally tangible. His gender switch to town gossip Vera Carp, vice president of the Smut-Snatchers of the New Order, is both hilarious and chilling but no more so than when Vera slides into sleep during a cliché-laden speech by Egelsky as Smut-Snatchers president the Rev. Spikes.

As Pearl, Egelsky takes her hatred of dogs to a riotous level as her strychnine-laced meatball is devoured by the wrong hound and she must enlist the aid of nephew Stanley in disguising the murder as a hit-and-run. His turn as Rev. Spikes is frighteningly familiar.

Canine or human, male or female, Eglsky and Purkeypile delineate the good, the bad and the ugly of Tuna, Texas with amazing results, from totally touching to absolutely appalling (and absolutely hilarious).

Under the direction of Karen Johnston with assistance from John Shoup, there are few if any lags as the action shifts from the studio of Station OKKK to the Bumiller home to a variety of other locations around town.

There is no doubt that the smooth transitions in characters could not be accomplished without the help of the ladies who spend each show waiting backstage and in the wings to facilitate the incredibly fast changes of shoes, dress and wigs. They are Pati Banik, Dawn Blessing, Susie Miller, Phyllis Oliver and Sandy VanTilburg. Each one is an integral part of “Greater Tuna.”

“GREATER TUNA” plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday in the Bristol Opera House on S.R., 120 in Bristol. For reservations and information call 848-4116 between 1 and 5:30 p.m. weekdays.