We take a look at what is being said about this revival of Peter Shaffer’s comedy.
Broadway World: “The evening’s most striking presence, though, is Patricia Allison as Clea. Like fellow Sex Education alumni Ncuti Gatwa (Born With Teeth, The Importance Of Being Earnest) and Tanya Reynolds (A Mirror, 1536), Allison has gyrated towards the stage with considerable aplomb.”
Everything Theatre: ” Black Comedy is a hilarious evening crafted with precision and control by a talented team. Seeing every moment of the setup manages to make it funnier. As everything unravels, the cast excel. It takes real skill to make something so coordinated look like pandemonium. This production is a wild and joyful ride in the dark.”
The Standard: But really this is a somewhat dated farce, contrived with careful precision, executed with the sort of crowd-pleasing brio at which the Orange Tree excels. For the original 1965 staging, starring Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith, it was paired with Strindberg’s psychodrama Miss Julie. The past really is a foreign country.”
Theatre & Tonic: “The actors-director team appears committed, at ease, and on the same page, making a show with a hundred, terribly difficult, moving parts look effortless. This fruitful collaboration between creatives can be seen in the precision of the comedic timing as well, with lines consistently landing sharply and surprisingly.”
Time Out: “Black Comedy is a very specific farce, and you can see why it only gets done every few decades. But what a treat that we’re living in one of them.”
WhatsOnStage: “There’s also much comedy to enjoy in the script, with miscommunications and misunderstandings aplenty. The cast ramp up the pace into a frenzy and seem to love every moment on Simon Daw’s paint-spattered stage, which makes judicious use of a trapdoor towards the end of the production.”
The Guardian: “Lighting designer Elliot Griggs perfectly delivers the counterintuitive illumination, better to show the work of John Nicholson, credited as “physical comedy consultant”. Standout slapstick includes one actor mistaking a crouching other for an armchair. Joe Bannister also, in a moment of nominal destiny, has to fall down a staircase.”
London Theatre 1: “Caroline Steinbeis’ production has tremendous pace, except when it breaks the ‘fourth wall’ and involves the audience, the cast working very hard indeed to make Black Comedy as funny as it should be”
All That Dazzles: “Shaffer’s writing is inherently funny, and the audience’s ability to see what the characters cannot allows for some brilliantly clever moments, as lines are delivered blindly to the wrong person, and sometimes even directly to the audience.”
The Arts Desk: “Peter Schaffer’s 1965 hit is still the perfect vehicle for premium physical comedy.”
The Reviews Hub: “The writing is sharp, the playing requires inch-perfect blocking and immaculate timing, and everyone is on top of their game. It’s a joy to watch clockwork precision. It’s excellent entertainment watching an electrician open a trapdoor that someone is inevitably going to fall through, and then enjoy the ‘accidents’ that make that not happen. Expectations deferred as sight-gags are set up and avoided until the pay-off is many times better.”
West End Best Friend: “Despite these reservations, a great time was had by all in the audience and this must be one of the funniest evenings currently on offer in London: surely what we need at a time like this. And now, will someone revive Shaffer’s Royal Hunt of the Sun – despite the enormous and mostly male cast and stage directions like “They cross the Andes…””
The Stage: “Energetic performances and crisp comic choreography carry Peter Shaffer’s clever farce beyond its simple gimmick.”
To book tickets visit: https://orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/black-comedy/