Black Comedy (play)

Black Comedy
Marquee for the Original Broadway Production at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 1967
Written by	Peter Shaffer
Characters	Brindsley Miller Carol Melkett Miss Furnival Colonel Melkett Harold Gorringe Schuppanzigh Clea Georg Bamberger
Date premiered	1965
Place premiered	National Theatre Chichester, England
Original language	English
Genre	Farce
Setting	9:30 on a Sunday Night Mid 1960s South Kensington, London Brindsley Miller's Flat

Black Comedy is a one-act farce by Peter Shaffer, first performed in 1965.

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. The title of the play is a pun.

Brindsley Miller, a young sculptor, and his debutante fiancée Carol Melkett have borrowed some expensive, antique furniture from his neighbor Harold's flat without his permission in order to impress an elderly millionaire art collector coming to view Brindsley's work, and Carol's father Colonel Melkett. When the power fails, Harold returns early, and Brindsley's ex-mistress Clea shows up unexpectedly, things slide into disaster for him.

The play begins in complete darkness.

Brindsley Miller, a young sculptor, and his debutante fiancée, Carol Melkett, have stolen some very expensive antiques from his neighbor Harold Gorringe, who is away for the weekend, to spruce up his normally slum-like apartment in order to impress Carol's father and a wealthy prospective buyer named Georg Bamberger. Before the guests arrive, a fuse in the cellar short-circuits causing a blackout. The stage is instantly illuminated.

As Brindsley and Carol search for matches, the phone rings and Brindsley answers. It is his previous mistress Clea, who has just returned from Finland. Brindsley hurriedly distracts Carol, and refuses to see Clea.

Miss Furnival, the occupant of the flat upstairs, enters seeking refuge from her fear of the dark. Miss Furnival is a spinster and lifelong teetotaler. They ring the London Electricity Board, but are told only that an electrician might arrive sometime later that night.

When Carol's father, Colonel Melkett, arrives he takes an almost instant dislike to Brindsley, and is unimpressed with one of his sculptures—a large work in iron with two prongs.

Harold Gorringe returns from his weekend early. Brindsley quickly pulls Harold into the flat so that he will not go into his own and discover the thievery. In the dark, Harold does not realize that the room is full of his own things. As Carol blindly mixes everyone drinks, Brindsley attempts to restore as much of the stolen furniture to Harold's flat as possible.

There is a mix-up as Carol hands out the drinks in the dark, and Miss Furnival is given liquor by mistake. She is hooked after her first taste, and stealthily procures more. Harold discovers Brindsley and Carol's engagement, and is furious at the news. It is obvious that he himself has secret feelings for Brindsley.