“The play was a good opening to the festival and carried with it the spirit of cuppers.” Kimberley Lord ★★★★★

Black Comedy ★★★★★

Burton Taylor: Tuesday 24th November, 12:30p.m.

Review by Kimberley Lord

A delightful rendition of Peter Shaffer’s play; it explored secrets hidden by shadows and deception revealed when the lights turned on. Appreciation must be shown towards the technician whose timing, an essential part of the play, was perfect. However, the acting of the main character, Brindsley, was poor. For the first five minutes it was difficult to decipher what was happening due to relatively poor diction, and in a dark set, this undermined the intended effect. Additionally, some of the roles were played to an unnecessary extreme. The voice of Carol Melkett was often irritating and grated upon the audience. In terms of delivering a humorous play, some of the timing was off and the director would have done well to fine-tune the interaction of the characters on stage. The lighting engineer whose enthusiastic performance lit up the theatre in what sometimes appeared as a dark situation was the only memorable part of the production and he had the audience in stitches.

The play was a good opening to the festival and carried with it the spirit of cuppers.