Black Comedy and White Liars

What a treat! Two one act plays that I have never seen before by renowned playwright Peter Shaffer, better known for Amadeus, Equus and Royal Hunt of the Sun. The farce, Black Comedy, was written first and made its debut in 1965 at Chichester Festival Theatre, then just in its infancy. It is appropriate that it is presented with White Liars (or White Lies as it was then), because the latter was written to accompany Black Comedy’s 1967 Broadway production. Schaffer later reworked it twice and renamed it, and it wasn’t until 1976 that he declared himself happy with the end result.

Taking them in order of appearance, White Liars is set in the tent of fortune teller Sophie Lemburg, supposedly a Baroness of the Holy Roman Empire, but rather down on her luck, eking out a living in a grim and decaying seaside resort. Despite her motto “Lemburg Always Tells the Truth,” she’s not above taking a generous payment to try to persuade rock singer Tom to leave the girlfriend of the band’s manager Frank alone. Sophie’s tent and the seafront were beautifully represented by The Bodgers’ set – quality and attention to detail as always. Anne-Lise Kadri gave a masterly performance as Sophie, maintaining her accent perfectly and an air of mystery, portraying real emotion as her invented back story began to unravel. Ben Bedford was also on top form as singer Tom, and we completely believed the story he had woven of his deprived and abused background - good accent too. Jez Austin gave strong support as band manager Frank, and we felt sympathy for his character as the truth turned out to be even stranger than the fiction he had been fed. New Director Daisy Bedford has kept the action very tight, and the rather wordy play retained our interest with good momentum until all the white lies unravelled at the end.

Black Comedy is a farce of the highest order, despite the set having only one door and no dropping trousers. It takes place in a London flat which suffers a power cut and uses a technique called “Chinese Darkness”. When there is no light in the flat, the stage is fully lit and when there is partial or full light in the flat, the stage is partly or totally dark. An unusual technique which I took a while to cotton onto, and meant the actors had to fumble around in the dark when there was full light and act like they could see everything when it was dark. The effect on stage was hilarious and the rehearsals must have been great fun. All credit to Director Matthew Bell for getting the cast to do this so fluently. He must also take credit for the way the tension was consistently wound up with one confusion and misunderstanding piling on top of another, leading to an explosive revelation at the end.

Another superb set, on two levels, by The Bodgers, well decorated and furnished, setting the scene in Brindsley’s flat. Ben Gander played arch-deceiver Brindsley Miller to perfection, (literally) throwing himself around the set, convincingly tripping over the furniture with great energy. Grace Moritz was spot-on in her portrayal of his soon-to-be fiancée Carol, very ‘county’, and she was well paired with Wayne Pinhorn as her puffed-up, doting father, Colonel Melkett. Anne Wheeldon was super as innocent spinster Miss Furnival, never taking her unaccustomed drunkenness too far. Jez Austin was nicely bewildered as the neighbour whose furniture has been borrowed, and Joanne Stephenson was obviously enjoying herself as Brindsley’s not-quite-ex girlfriend making the most of the confusion to stir things up even further. Steve Sheppard as Schuppanzigh, the man from the electricity board, added nicely to the turmoil with his lovely German accent and the bubble was burst by Ben Bedford, making a brief appearance at the end as Bamberger the much-delayed millionaire art buyer.

Lighting and sound effects throughout both plays were excellent (Max Burrage and Laura Sheppard of the Green A Team, and Steph Pinhorn). No microphones were used but everyone projected well, and we heard every word.

It is most encouraging to see Winton Players nurturing new directors. Daisy Bedford (White Liars) and Matthew Bell (Black Comedy) are both new to the game but produced well thought out and well-honed pieces. It must have been a great comfort to have the support and experience of their mentors, Penny Young and Laura Sheppard respectively, to draw on and I hope we see more from them in the future.

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