Starving artists have a rough enough time of it without having to deal with the skeptical parents of their significant others. So no one could fault young sculptor Brindsley Miller for wanting to impress his girlfriend’s father at a dinner party by decorating his flat in slightly more impressive furniture than his own. Of course, it might not have been a good idea to “borrow” a neighbor’s furniture for this purpose—and an inconvenient blackout at the dinner throws the need for such finery into question.

Playwright Peter Shaffer’s best-known works are the dramas Equus and Amadeus, but audiences will get a chance to see his satirical side in a play that reverses expectations by reversing lighting. We get to see everything that’s going on in the “darkened” room, and the grand tradition of British farce gets a twist of near misses, not through slammed doors but by people who don’t know what’s going on right in front of their faces.

Black Comedy @ Pioneer Theatre Company, 300 S. 1400 East, 801-581-6961, Jan. 14-29, $28-$42. PioneerTheatre.org