English playwright Peter Shaffer is well known for his powerhouse, stage-filling ’70s works Amadeus and Equus. Back in 1965, this one-act farce was a hit, though Shaffer later said that “there really was no play, merely a convention.”

Black Comedy opens in complete darkness, which at first seems disconcerting and gimmicky. We can only hear the action until Brindsley Miller’s apartment suffers a short circuit. The stage lights up for us, but it’s a blackout for Brindsley and his guests. (Shaffer borrows the device from Chinese opera.) The blown fuse betokens disaster for struggling artist Brindsley (Richard Nguyen Sloniker) and his paltry apartment on what ought to be an important occasion: meeting his spoiled fiancee’s father and an important art collector. Complicating matters further, he and fiancee Carol (Brenda Joyner) have “borrowed” his neighbor’s furniture, guaranteeing a future twist in this comedy of errors.

Soon to arrive are Carol’s father, the stuffy Colonel Melkett (Michael Patten); the rich collector; an electrician (MJ Sieber); and other unannounced guests. Thence follows mistaken identities, drunken rants by a teetotalling spinster (Emily Chisholm), inappropriate father/daughter groping, and the arrival of Brindsley’s cruel ex-lover (Allison Strickland).

Black Comedy is anything but a dark comedy, providing ribald revelry for the audience and mass confusion for the characters onstage. After a slow start, it devolves into havoc, yet ends deftly (if arbitrarily), as if amused by itself. Director Kelly Kitchens brings to her Strawberry Theatre Workshop cast a comedic synergy that evokes tears of laughter. (The performance is paired with a quick-paced, witty curtain-opener featuring Strickland and Sieber: Sure Thing, by David Ives.) Erickson Theatre Off Broadway, 1524 Harvard Ave., 800-838-3006, strawshop.org. $18–$36. 8 p.m. Thurs.–Sat. Ends Sept. 20.

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