by Peter Shaffer

Black Comedy is an unusual play in which light and dark are reversed on the stage; when the lights go out for the characters they come on for the audience.  This is an idea borrowed from classical Chinese opera when duels supposed to be taking place in total darkness are hilariously re-enacted by two men with much ducking, wild thrusting and bumping into each other.

Black Comedy develops this tradition in one of the most hilarious displays of pure comic invention ever seen on the stage.  The scene is sculptor Brindsley Miller's flat where he has to cope, not only with an electrical failure, but the simultaneous presence of a deb fiancée, her irate military father, a neighbour from whom he has borrowed some expensive antiques and his former girl-friend.  And, as his guests fumble in the dark in full view of the audience, the wit of the dialogue complements the physical situation in which they find themselves.