BELHAVEN—Next week, a local theater production team in Belhaven will present Peter Shaffer’s “Black Comedy.”

The Way Off Broadway Players will offer three performances July 17, 18 and 19 at the Way Off Broadway Theater on Pamlico Street in Belhaven. The production will start at 8 p.m. each night, said Director George Wahab.

Wahab said he has directed and presented this play several times and taught it in class when he was a teacher. The play, written in the 1960s, is a dark comedy set in London.

“It was very popular when I was in college,” Wahab said. “All the theater people were talking about it. I taught it in class and did the play with my students at Northside High School and I’ve done it once with the adults about eight years ago.”

Wahab said two of the original cast members — Mary Wahab and Mike Gibbs — from eight years ago will perform again next week. The rest of the cast is new to the play. The cast started rehearsing the play in May and has worked on it for the past 10 weeks, Wahab said.

The play begins with Brindsley, played by Aaron Stevens, and his girlfriend, Carol, played by Hannah Byrd, expecting her father to visit his apartment, Wahab said. In order to impress her father, Brindsley borrows the neighbor’s furniture in order to jazz up his apartment and impress Carol’s father, who is a colonel. When a fuse in the apartment blows, the lights go out. Carol’s father shows up along with the neighbor and Brindsley must return the furniture to his neighbor’s apartment without him knowing. Brindsley’s ex-girlfriend also shows up and it goes down hill from there, Wahab said.

Wahab said the author of the play used a creative trick, which had never been done before. The lights are dimmed onstage when the lights are on in the plot of the story. When the lights go out, the stage lighting goes bright.

“It was a brilliant idea,” Wahab said. “Although the lights are on, the characters act like it’s dark. The lighting is difficult and makes your brain realize that they’re in the dark. It sounds strange, but the audience will adjust. It’s difficult for the actors to pretend they’re in the dark when it’s really light, but they do a pretty good job.”

The play’s underlying meaning teaches the audience to be straightforward rather than deceitful, Wahab said. The actors show the troubles Brindsley goes through as a result of being dishonest and trying to please everyone.

“That’s why it’s a dark comedy,” Wahab said. “Even though it’s a comedy, there’s that underlying dark truth. I thought it might be nice to do another play that was not all funny. As a director, it’s just fun to be with all the talented people I work with.”

The cast will host dress rehearsals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 7 p.m.  Tickets for the actual play on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are $10 per person.

For tickets and reservations, please call 252-943-3796.