Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Black Comedy

By the way, Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy is very clever but so dark.

It's set in an apartment where the electric lights are out for most of the play.
The play is written to be staged under a reversed lighting scheme: the play opens on a darkened stage. A few minutes into the show there is a short circuit, and the stage is illuminated to reveal the characters in a "blackout." On the few occasions when matches, lighters, or torches are lit, the lights grow dimmer.
It was fun to read, but I found the characters so unappealing
that I was left with an unhappy feeling.

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