With hands covered in white chalky stains, Chris Benham carefully applied a final coat of plaster to a Buddha statue destined to be destroyed onstage.

Audiences can see one of his sculptures shatter during Pentacle Theatre’s “Black Comedy,” a 1965 comedy written by playwright Peter Shaffer. Benham is the theatre’s technical director.

“It’s a good old classic British farce, very slapstick, with tons and tons of jokes,” said Megan Emerick, an actor playing Carol Melkett. “It’s a funny premise that creates these crazy situations all happening in one night.”

The comedy premieres Friday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. It follows a London sculptor, Brindsley Miller, who is newly engaged to Carol. To impress Carol’s father, Brindsley “borrows” a vacationing neighbor’s furniture. When a fuse blows, slapstick-style comedy ensues as unexpected guests stumble through the dark, bumping into each other and breaking things – including one of Benham’s sculptures. 

The absurdity begins immediately when the play opens in complete darkness. When the power goes out three minutes later, the stage lights finally come on, reversing the audience’s expectations.  

“The play intentionally opens on a darkened stage,” said Director Debbie Neel. “We have that in the announcements so the audience isn’t alarmed and thinks we have technical issues.”

“Black Comedy” reverses light and dark. When the audience sees a lit stage, the characters are in the dark, and when the stage is dark, the characters are in the light. 

“That is the fun part for the audience – is watching these people stumble around in the dark,” Neel said. “Carol’s making drinks in the dark, and Brinsley is trying to move furniture without other people realizing it, which is kind of a trick in itself.”

When looking for a comedy to propose for the season, Neel remembers someone brought up the idea of producing “Black Comedy.” Having seen it performed at the Pentacle years before, she moved forward with the idea. 

Pentacle is primarily staffed by volunteers, including the actors. Emerick has been a volunteer actor for the Pentacle since 2020. 

“It’s nothing like I’ve ever done before at Pentacle or anywhere else,” she said about “Black Comedy.” “It’s an acting challenge in itself, to pretend that you can’t see and you could see clearly.”

For Benham, a key challenge was designing his sculptures to break on stage, but not in transport. Through trial and error, he landed on a process of lining a silicone mold with three layers of plaster.

Benham will have to make at least 15 sculptures for the upcoming performances. Each piece takes four to six hours of labor and 24 hours to dry.

In his 11 years at Pentacle, Benham said he has never made something designed to permanently break. 

“Creating art that is temporary, that is momentary, it forces you to be present in the creation of the art and in the experience of it, while at the same time, I have to keep an emotional distance,” Benham said.

Benham said he might make a Buddha head for himself as a keepsake. Neel said she already has one. 

Contact reporter Hailey Cook [email protected].

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