Pioneer Theatre Company: Black Comedy | Entertainment Picks | Salt Lake City Weekly
Support the Free Press | Facts matter. Truth matters. Journalism matters
Salt Lake City Weekly has been Utah's source of independent news and in-depth journalism since 1984. Donate today to ensure the legacy continues.

January 27, 2011 Culture » Entertainment Picks

Pioneer Theatre Company: Black Comedy 

Through Saturday Jan. 29 @ Pioneer Theatre Company

By
Pin It
Email
Print
Favorite
art13155widea.jpg
It’s a farce built entirely around a gimmick: At the outset, it’s pitch black, as aspiring sculptor Brindsley Miller (Michael Brusasco, pictured) and his fiancee, Carol Melkett (Rachel Moulton, pictured), prepare to host—and, they hope, impress—Carol’s father, Col Melkett (Greg Thornton), and wealthy art collector Georg Bamberger. Then, suddenly, the stage is flooded with light when their London flat is plunged into a blackout. We see only what the characters don’t see—and on that premise is hung a uniquely delightful burst of slapstick.

Playwright Peter Shaffer populates his one-act play with the sort of characters who might seem considerably broader in 2011 than they did in 1965: an outwardly prim neighbor (Joyce Cohen) who surreptitiously gets drunker and drunker; Harold (Donald Corren), another neighbor who announces his sexual orientation with a swish and a leering double-entendre or 12; Carol, the squeaky-voiced girl-woman who talks about “sexy-poo.” Dissertations will not be written on their complexity.

But director Jeff Steitzer brilliantly choreographs the script’s most complex gags, particularly a ballet of near-catastrophes as Brindsley’s attempts to return Harold’s fancy furniture—which he has “borrowed” to replace his own tackier pieces—across the hall secretly and silently after Harold unexpectedly arrives. And it’s nearly as hilarious when Brindsley’s most recent ex-girlfriend (Lauren Elise McCord)—or maybe “ex” isn’t exactly appropriate—also arrives. The snippets of satire at social climbing are almost beside the point when the guffaws burst out at Black Comedy’s clockwork comic timing.

Black Comedy @ Pioneer Theatre Company, 300 S. 1400 East, 801-581-6961, through Jan. 29, $28-$42. PioneerTheatre.org

Pin It
Email
Print
Favorite

Tags:

  |  

More Entertainment Picks »

About The Author

Scott Renshaw

Scott Renshaw
Bio:
 Scott Renshaw has been a City Weekly staff member since 1999, including assuming the role of primary film critic in 2001 and Arts & Entertainment Editor in 2003. Scott has covered the Sundance Film Festival for 25 years, and provided coverage of local arts including theater, pop-culture conventions, comedy, literature,... more

More by Scott Renshaw

Latest in Entertainment Picks

Readers also liked…

  • THE ESSENTIAL A&E PICKS FOR MAR 14 - 20

    St. Patrick's Day, Bored Teachers Comedy Tour, Downy Doxey-Marshall: Bloom and Laura Sharp Wilson: Gilding the Lily: A Choreography , and more.
    • By City Weekly Staff
    • Mar 13, 2024
···

© 2024 Salt Lake City Weekly

Website powered by Foundation