Working under considerable pressure, Peter Shaffer wrote Black Comedy as a companion piece to the 1965 Chichester Festival production of Miss Julie by August Strindberg. Despite significant reservations from the original production company, the play proved an immediate success. It has since been staged around the world and continues to delight audiences with its ingenious premise and relentless comic energy. At the heart of this delightful farce lies the theatrical conceit that the characters stumble about in what they believe to be complete darkness, while the audience watches their misadventures in full light. Conversely, whenever the stage is dark to the audience, the characters experience illumination. More than a clever gimmick, this inversion becomes a metaphor for the secret and seriously complicated amorous life of the struggling sculptor Brindsley Miller. Brindsley is preparing to meet two crucial visitors: his prospective father-in-law, a military man of rigid convictions, and a wealthy, reclusive, and hard-of-hearing art collector whose patronage could transform the artist's career. As Brindsley and his fiancée "borrow" a neighbour's furniture in an effort to impress their guests, an unexpected power cut threatens to expose every carefully guarded secret. What follows is the classic farcical cocktail of mounting chaos, collapsing deceptions, and the inevitable consequences of hypocrisy. This current production gets many elements of the formula right. However, from the outset the cast operates at full volume and maximum intensity. The shouting and panic arrive too early, leaving little room for escalation. As a result, the delicious sense of events spiralling steadily from bad to worse never fully develops. While farce does not demand psychological complexity, it does require characters whose predicaments engage the audience. Here, most remain little more than broad caricatures. The exception may be Joe Bannister's portrayal of Brindsley. He brings a certain nuance and variation to the role which lends humanity to the otherwise hapless philanderer. The production's greatest weakness, however, lies in its repeated disregard for the play's critical dramatic conceit. Although the opening moments convincingly establish the illusion of darkness, that commitment soon begins to waver. Characters navigate the set with suspicious ease, at one point crossing paths on the staircase without collision, while Clea somehow manages to leap onto a table despite supposedly being unable to see a thing. Such moments occur frequently enough to become distracting and, in farce, few sins are greater than reminding the audience that they are watching a performance. By undermining the very premise on which Black Comedy depends, this production repeatedly breaks the spell it works so hard to create. Shaffer's play thrives in the tension between what is hidden and what is revealed, between darkness and illumination. Unfortunately, while this production often shines with energy, it repeatedly obscures the very mechanism that makes the comedy sparkle.
Rated: ★★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo Sam Taylor
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