Black Comedy
A farce by Peter Shaffer
Thursday 29 April 1993 - Saturday 1 May 1993
Faringdon Community Theatre, The Pump House, 5 Market Place, Faringdon
Directed by Carolyn Taylor
Performances start 7:30 pm. Doors open 30 minutes earlier.
Tickets were available from Faringdon Travel, 11 Market Place, Faringdon.
The action of the play takes place in Brindsley Miller’s apartment in South Kensington, London, at 9.30 on a Sunday evening in the late 1960s, during a power cut. In this play the usual conditions of light and dark are reversed: when the lights are “on” we see nothing but darkness; when they are “off” we see the characters behaving as if they were in a blackout. The play begins in complete darkness.
Brindsley Miller, a young sculptor, and his debutante fiancĂ©e, Carol Melkett, have stolen some very expensive antique items and furniture from his neighbour Harold Gorringe, who is away for the weekend, in an attempt to spruce up his normally slum-like apartment in order to impress a wealthy art collector, Georg Bamberger, who is coming to view his work, and Carol’s father, Colonel Melkett. As they contemplate the coming evening, Carol inquires about Brindsley’s previous mistress, a painter named Clea. Brindsley tells her that he saw her for only three months and that the relationship took place two years ago. Just as Carol places a Sousa march on the record player, a fuse short circuits causing a blackout. The stage is instantly illuminated.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Comedy_(play)
Photographs by kind permission of Ian Smith (founder of the ‘Faringdon Folly’ newspaper)
Cast (in order of appearance):
Brindsley Miller - Nick Hobden
Carol Melkett - Mary Green
Miss Furnival - Deirdre Hamley
Colonel Melkett - Peter Webster
Harold Gorringe - Dave Headey
Clea - Debbie Lock
Schuppanzigh - Walther Schoonenberg
Georg Bamberger - Roger Leitch
See programme for further details.
Production No.112 (3 shows were performed over 3 days).