Black Comedy Tonight

Black Comedy

Black Comedy, a farce by Peter Shaffer from 1965 and Theatre Above the Law’s new production, opens on a darkened stage. Brindsley and his fiancee have ‘borrowed’ the fancier furniture of a neighbor to impress an art collector. Just before the party is set to begin, a fuse blows plunging the characters into darkness, but bringing the stage lights up. While the audience can the see the actors, the characters can’t see anything and vice versa. When the characters restore the lights, the theater goes dark again. Add a parade of unexpected and unwelcome guests, and you have the recipe of a first rate farce.

There are two key components to succeed in staging a farce. First, everyone on stage has to take it seriously. Even the extreme characters have to act like they are perfectly normal. The second is the tempo has to get faster pretty much uniformly throughout the show. If the actors wink at the audience or pause to catch their breath, the energy leaves the show and there’s no way to get it back. Happily, I think this production sticks the landing. Brooks Whitlock as the lead role of Brindsley in particular carries off a lot of silent physical comedy really well, and Allyson Womack does great work as the fastidious neighbor acting drunk without overacting drunk. Overall, everyone kept all the plates spinning nicely. It’s a peculiar kind of physical acting to act like you are in total darkness when you’re not. The cast overall did a great job of doing that without letting the seams show.

The play is set in 1960s London, which presents one minor problem for me, in that it requires the cast to adopt accents. I’ll applaud the cast for committing and I don’t think I really caught a slip up, but I could feel part of the casts brain being devoted to getting the accent right. I honestly think it’s less distracting to just let the actors speak in their normal voices. Ten minutes into The Hunt for Red October, you just accept that the Russian captain has a Scottish accent and keep going. They did the work well, but I could see the work being done. The cast already has to act like they are in the dark, which again, they did really well, so adding accents becomes a tall order.

Still, none of that ultimately detracts from this zippy production. I am on record of being a huge fan of the 90-minute one act show, and this one is a great example of it. The shorter run time and lack of an intermission let the show shine without breaking the spell or overstaying its welcome. TATL should be applauded for tackling such a technically ambitious piece, and the cast should be congratulated for carrying it off. If you are looking for a something a little tart to cut the sweetness of all the productions of The Nutcracker and Christmas Carol this time of year, Black Comedy is a great pick.

Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented through December 21 by Theatre Above the Law at 1439 W. Jarvis, Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased via their website.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.