Black Comedy (play)

Black Comedy
Marquee for the original Broadway production at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 1967
Written by	Peter Shaffer
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 premise of the piece is that light and dark are transposed, so that when the stage is lit the cast are supposed to be in darkness and only when the stage is dark are they supposed to be able to see each other and their surroundings.

In the play, a young sculptor and his fiancée have borrowed some expensive antique furniture from a neighbour's flat without his permission to impress an elderly millionaire art collector. When the power fails, the neighbour returns early, other people also arrive unexpectedly, and matters descend into near-chaos.