Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 16, 1991 TAG: 9102160163
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT RIVENBARK/ SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
"White Liars," a short one-act play, and "Black Comedy," a longer one-acter, both explore human deception, but in very different ways. "White Liars" is a gripping drama; "Black Comedy" is pure farce.
Director Chuck Hayes said audiences accustomed to better-known Shaffer plays such as "Amadeus" and "Equus" will find "Black Comedy" a delightful departure from the intensely dramatic themes Shaffer usually explores.
"Like all great farces, `Black Comedy' first establishes an ordinary, acceptable reality," Hayes said. "As soon as that reality is set up, the play moves to increasingly farcical situations, by which time the audience will accept anything, outlandish as it is."
The opening scene is played in the dark, although the characters move and talk as if they were in broad daylight. Then there is a power failure, and the stage lights come up, leaving the actors in "darkness" that lasts until nearly the end of the play.
This reversal of light and darkness is, according to Hayes, a variation on a classical Oriental theatrical technique. "Black Comedy" is the only play in the Western repertoire to employ the technique, he said.
"The sight of characters blundering around in the so-called dark, and yet in plain sight of the audience, accounts for much of what makes this such a hilarious piece," Hayes said.
As in much British farce, the play ridicules Britain's class system.
"Black Comedy" features Jeff Clemmons, Leila Piedrafita, Caroline Leslie Bond, Jody L. Ashworth, Monty Haught, John Harrell, Katie Van Dyke and Todd Metrokin.
"White Liars," the curtain-raiser for "Black Comedy," is a horse of a different color. Audiences will find no comedy in this harrowing piece, according to Hayes.
Without giving anything away, suffice it to say that all the characters have to face up to their own lies in the end.
The play features Justine Kolb, Peter Wrenn, Jason P. Bold and W. Todd Humphrey.
Carl Lefko designed the sets for both plays, Monica Weinzapfel the costumes and A.W. Saunders the lighting.
Performances will be given at 8 p.m. Feb. 19-23 in Porterfield Auditorium on the Radford campus. Tickets are $3 general admission, $2.50 for Radford faculty and staff, and free to students. Call 831-5289 in Radford for tickets and information.
by CNB