BWW Reviews: Black Comedy Does Not Leave Audiences In The Dark

Idaho Arts Charter in Nampa (high school) invited me to come and review their show BLACK COMEDY by Peter Shaffer. If I do not know the play, I try not to walk in the door with expectation, however, with this title, I was thinking it was going to be a "dark comedy". I was pleasantly surprised that it was not.

BLACK COMEDY is a farce that takes place during a blackout somewhere in England. This can be difficult to do as many high school students learned about British dialects by watching Mary Poppins. However, these students had just subtle enough for me to know England with out being overly done or stereotypical. Well done!

The play is about an artist and his debutant girlfriend who hatch a plan to impress an eccentric art collector and her father. They do this by stealing the higher quality furniture, excuse me, temporarily borrowing the furniture from his next door neighbor. When the play begins, the power goes out and all kinds mischief occurs. It is important to remember that when you can see the actors, it's actually dark and when you can not see them, it's light

This play was fun. I enjoy going to the high school productions, I can see the raw talent and ejoyment of the students as they entertain the audiences. And I can see the enjoyment and pride of the audience members as they are being entertained.