BLACK COMEDY -- Rochester Civic Theatre

playwright: Peter Shaffer
director: Greg Miller
scene designer: Greg Miller
lighting designer: Janet Roeder
costumer designer: Tom Lydeen
cast: Benjamin Parrish, Lindsay Beach, Doug Petty, Debbie Hill Fuehrer, Sean Lundberg, Brian Bedard, Christina Stier, Jonathan Allan 

A farce in which a theatrical gimmick is used -- when the power in an apartment goes off the stage is flooded with light and the audience watched the actors struggle to move around 'in the dark' and when a match is struck or a flashlight goes on, the theatrical lights dim on stage. The plot is simple ... an artist and his fiancee borrow some expensive furniture from a neighbor in order to impress an art collector. When the power goes out, the neighbor returns, the artist's former mistress shows up, and there is comic confusion over who is the art collector.

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I haven't been to the Rochester Civic Theatre in MANY years, but I really, REALLY wanted to see this play. I remember reading it shortly after it first came out and thought it was hysterical and would be a lot of fun to actually see staged.

 Unfortunately, this was not so much fun to see staged.

 I appreciate community theatre, I really do, and community theatre CAN be a tremendous experience. Unfortunately, this particular show was so hard to sit through, it was embarrassing.

 I had dragged a friend along, talking highly about the show for our hour drive, but we both sat in silence through most of the show. I did chuckle a couple of times -- thank you Peter Shaffer -- but mostly just wished I had gone by myself, instead of bringing a friend.

 Mostly I blame the direction here. The lack of pacing and not understanding where the conflicts were and how to build to them, had the actors floundering around, performing schtick rather than letting the play work for them.

 Farce is tricky, I understand. As an actor you WANT to just let go and be funny, but farce needs to be 'controlled' in order to be done right and get the best laughs. Individually, the performances were fine. Together, they didn't work, and the play didn't work.