The Elm Student Newspaper
Landauer calls Black Comedy funniest show to hit campus in 20 years; play puts twist on concepts of light and dark
Bryan Utter
The cast of Black Comedy rehearses. The
show opens tonight at 8 p.m. in Tawes
Theatre and repeats on Saturday at the
same time and place.
Photograph by Christina Vouros, Elm photographer.
Imagine being caught unprepared during a blackout. No candles, flashlights, or matches. Just complete darkness. Now, throw this into the mix: you've "borrowed" your neighbor's antique furniture to impress your fiancée's father who's coming to meet you for the first time to judge whether or not you'll be allowed to marry his daughter.
This is the plight of Brinsley Miller who, confronted with several other situations in his darkness-shrouded apartment, is the main character of Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy. The play will be presented this weekend as a senior thesis production by drama major Paul Landauer.
Black Comedy puts an interesting twist on the concepts of light and dark. That is, they are reversed. When the characters on stage are in the darkness, the stage is actually fully lighted, giving the audience the chance to see the actors bump, grope, and generally fumble all over the place. Conversely, when the stage is dark, the characters are supposed to be able to see everything.
Said Landauer, "I think this show presents a unique type [of genre], that being Farce. The lighting effects being opposite help to create an uneasy situation for the characters, which, with a little luck, the audience will think it to be very funny."
Pretending to be in the dark has presented challenges for many of the actors in the show. Junior Katie Kolacki, who plays the role of Mrs. Furnival, said, "It's definitely been interesting pretending to be in the dark for most of the show. It's really difficult to be able to see something but not be allowed to acknowledge that it's there."
Kolacki described her character as "the pompous, uptight neighbor from upstairs."
Junior Tommy Robbins plays the role of Harold Goringe, the neighbor whose furniture has been taken. Robbins spoke about one approach the cast took in an effort to learn how to pretend to be in the dark: "After we blocked the show, Paul had us run it a few times blindfolded. This helped us get a feel for what we were supposed to be portraying to the audience."
Alumnus Steven Spotswood, who plays the role of the hapless Brinsley, said that he has enjoyed pretending to be in the dark for one specific reason: "I get to grope a lot of people, 'accidentally.' I've done it now a couple hundred times, and I have to say that I never get tired of it."
This show also has within it another senior thesis. The set for Black Comedy has been designed by Jillian "Keeza" Matundan for fulfillment of her obligation to WC. According to Matundan, the set has presented its own unique complications.
"The whole set has been difficult, and that's only because I've intentionally tried to challenge myself," said Matundan. "In fact, I think some of the majors may hate me and my 'delicate artistic sensibilities,' because this is the second time that I've 'challenged' myself.
"Considering that it's my thesis, I wanted to take different approaches and, if you look at my last thesis, as compared to this one, I took an abstract set and tried to make it more concrete; with this one, I've taken the concrete and stretched it to the limit."
The set has a few unusual qualities to it, including a trap door and a few pieces of Brinsley's own artistic works. Said Matundan, "The trap door wasn't as difficult as it was in Creation of the World and Other Business, surprisingly enough, since a 'pseudo' trap door had been made. In Creation, Lucifer had to fall through Hell. All we needed to do was to use the same trap and tailor it, make a small door that hinged, and it was done.
"In terms of difficulty, none has been particularly easy. The walls especially were a huge challenge and the sculptures mostly time consuming, and I'm a ridiculously anal person, so they have to be perfect."
Matundan continued: "Overall, this set, though it stays stationary throughout the whole play, has been one big challenge and there were varying degrees of difficulty with certain set pieces as compared to others. All in all, we've been working something like two-three weeks on the set so far and I still have a bunch of paintings and sculptures to make."
According to Landauer, "the set is one of the largest constructed (at least as a thesis) in a long time. [Matundan] did a marvelous job while still keeping the key elements of the show."
Show times for Black Comedy are 8 p.m. November 17 and 18 in Tawes Theatre. Landauer is calling the production "the funniest show to Hit Washington College in 20 years."
According to the director, "People will leave with side-aches from laughing so hard."
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