By Myra Chanin . . .
The opening night of Lynn University’s production of Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy was a very sad night for me. It’s probably the last time that Lynn’s graduating musical theater majors, their Class of 2023, will touch my heart as they did with their Sweeney Todd, get my toes tapping as they did with their 42nd Street and tickle my funny bone enough to have me howling with laughter at their uproarious antics during their side splitting performance of Black Comedy.
The cast was superbly directed by Lynn Professor Harry Murphy who has worked extensively in theater, radio, television, and film. His credentials include an MFA from Yale School of Drama. He also belongs to Actors Equity, The Screen Actors Guild, and Aftra, and is a founding member of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge MA.
Here’s a bit of history about playwright Peter Shaffer. Lawrence Olivier was so impressed with his serious historical play, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, that Olivier commissioned a play by Shaffer. Olivier may have expected another historical masterpiece that dramatized the relationship between two worlds through two characters: a South American native, and a Spanish explorer. Instead, Shaffer handed Olivier Black Comedy, the funniest farce ever written. But it’s a bit topsy-turvy.
When the play begins the audience faces a pitch-black stage, which means the actors are in a lighted space. When the set and actors can be seen by the audience, the actors are in the dark and the fun begins. The entire cast spoke with high-pitched squeaky voices. Consequently, I often didn’t understand a lot of what they were saying. I had to google the play to learn about the plot and I’m sharing what I learned. Note: The cast members, whose names are in bold type, are graduating seniors. Sob! Sob! When will I see their like again?
Struggling sculptor Brinsley Miller (Trevor Bishop) and his fiancé, Carol Melk (Caroline Macchiarola) are expecting a visit from Carol’s bombastic mother, Colonel Melkett (Shannon Tsunoda) and millionaire Georg Bamberger (Hedwyn Lamy). They hope the two men might purchase some of Brinsley’s sculptures. Without permission, they have borrowed the furniture of their fussy neighbor, Harold Gorringe (Terry Stover) to make their own flat more presentable. Suddenly, the main fuse blows, plunging the flat into darkness. Miss Furnival (Abbie Fricke) a spinster and lifelong teetotaler who lives on the floor above, crawls into the flat seeking refuge from her fear of the dark.
Clea (Marli Pickford), who believes she’s Miller’s girlfriend, enters unannounced and unseen. In the confusion, Brinsley catches hold of her bottom and instantly recognizes it. He manages to retreat with her up the loft, where his desperate pleas that she leave dissolve into passionate kisses. The cad! He agrees to let Clea stay in the loft if she’ll promise not to come downstairs. Schuppanzigh (Anthony Lord), the electric repair man, arrives next and is mistaken for the stone-deaf millionaire they await. Clea emerges from the loft, outraged to discover Brinsley’s engaged to Carol. After Carol finds out about Brinsley and Clea, she’s similarly outraged. Rage is interrupted by Miss Furnival who, completely inebriated, erupts into a drunken tirade, ranting on the terrors of the modern supermarket, calling to her dead father, and prophesying a judgment day when “the heathens in their leather jackets” will be “stricken from their motorcycles.”
What follows is a frantic romp of unexpected visitors, mistaken identities, returning furniture and surprises lurking in every dark corner—which equals 90 minutes of chaotic, disastrous, and downright hysterical, non-stop hilarity. I couldn’t always figure out what those squeaky voices were saying, but it didn’t much matter. I laughed like a loon. I felt like I was watching an old-time slapstick silent movie, with perfectly choreographed moves, hits and misses; and with titles that disappear before I finish reading them or make sense of what they said.
Most of the time when I howled with laughter, the audience laughed with me. But I have to admit, sometimes I roared alone. I guess I was the first to grasp what was going to happen. Lynn’s drama department is very noble and ambitious. Every play they select is worth going to see. If you look at the cast of this play, you’ll see that not everyone is graduating, and I, for one, from now on expect to attend every production that Lynn University presents.
I would also like to commend the craftsmanship of Raisa Asim and All On Stage’s lighting design, Adam Klein’s quirky sets and Hick, Rey, and Vogt’s costumes.
Lynn University’s Black Comedy was presented by the College of Arts and Sciences at the Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center in Boca Raton, Florida, April 13-15, 2023. I’m greatly looking forward to their 2023-24 season. Don’t miss it. These kids are really talented and their work is ambitious.
Photos: Courtesy of Lynn University
