The lights don't go up for some time on 'Black Comedy' down in the hall of Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church (venue 45), but this is, of course, entirely intentional. Peter Shaffer's jeu d'esprit is a darkly moral tale in which the protagonist, Brindsley Miller (Chris Boreham), gets rather more than he might have wished for and, by implication by the play's end, perhaps a little more than he justly deserves.

Intent on impressing both the father of his new girlfriend Carol (Anna Catchpole) and an eccentric millionaire anxious to buy some of his sculpture, Miller 'borrows' furniture from the flat of prissy antique dealer Harold Gorridge (Charles Harris). All goes well for Miller, till the lights go out - or as those familiar with the play will know, go on. Shaffer reverses optical logic, and scenes in the darkness of blackout are played in full light, whilst when electrical supply is uninterrupted, at the opening and end of the play, scenes are acted in darkness.

Shaffer's play isn't simply technical trickery, however; it's both roaring farce and sharp commentary on what can happen when diverse and disconnected people are brought together in emergency. Thus kindly next-door neighbour Miss Furneval (Rosie Wadham), emerges as the repetitious bore real life has made her, Carol's military father a potentially homicidal bombastic bully.

The complications Shaffer stacks up for his put-upon protagonist deserve to be seen rather than described, but it's an intentional irony that the only pair of clear eyes in the surrounding darkness belong to the on-call electrical engineer. 'Black Comedy', as already indicated, is a play which ought to be seen to be appreciated, and Perse Players' production is most certainly worth seeing.

It happens that this will be the last theatre review posted by this reviewer of the Edinburgh Fringe 2007, and it's heartening to close with a non-professional company performing with style and very much in keeping with the true spirit of the Fringe.

Time: 6pm, 20-25 August

Copyright Bill Dunlop 2007, published on EdinburghGuide.com 2007