About the Play:

While the Lights Were Out is a full-length comedy by Jack Sharkey. In this play, a murder happens, the lights come up, and the audience has to scramble to figure out just what happened in the darkness. The mystery is top-notch, the characters marvellous, and the comedy explosive! While the Lights Were Out is a delightful evening of mayhem that gallops madly about the stage and will leave your audience breathless with surprise and laughter.

While the Lights Were Out is a breathtaking comedy, full of laughter, surprises, and enough suspense to keep your audience on their toes. Lord Clive and Lady Monica Wickenham are hosting a dinner party that turns sour. A thunderstorm! The lights go out! An agonized voice! A pistol shot! The lights come up! A mysterious blonde in black lace stands over the dead man holding a bloody dagger! Shot? Stabbed? But wait, don't jump to any conclusions. The detective examines the body and announces, "He's been strangled!" This is but the opening of one of the most astounding and hilarious murder mysteries ever staged. The question on everyone's mind: What happened while the lights were out? Every clue is a lulu and the plot twists furiously. The characters are unique and display a great variety for such a gathering: A French gentleman, Pierre Pourri, out to win the hearts of every woman; Jasmine Perdoo, a lady citizen of Alabama with a most humourous accent and a tendency to be secretly in the presence of the most interesting conversations. As well, Lady Monica's sister, Fredonia, a woman of poise who finds it difficult to handle the naive group that has gathered for the evening, arrives with her daughter, Chloe, a darling young girl with an innocent mind. Chief Inspector Benjamin Braddock is the man out to solve the case without the faintest idea of how to go about it, constantly in need of help from his assistant, Sgt. Alma Threedle, the real brains behind the mystery. These characters and more collide in an attempt to discover what really happened while the lights were out. Who will it be? Will Benjamin manage to solve the crime with such an odd collection of suspects? The final solution involves the most bizarre motive ever conceived.

While the Lights Were Out is regularly performed by high schools, colleges, and community theatres.

Cast: 9 female, 5 male

What people say:

"It's a little bit Pink Panther, a little bit Agatha Christie, and a little bit Legally Blonde ... combines murder with laughs and mayhem. While the Lights Were Out ... tells the story of Lord and Lady Clive Wickenham, who entertain guests for the weekend at their Bermuda mansion with deadly results." — Langley Advance (BC)

"Let the old grace of conversation be invited back into your life while enjoying this witty story of backstabbing, betrayal, and, most exciting of all, murder ... Jack Sharkey's mystery farce While the Lights Were Out, is a story filled with humour, suspicion, and class." — Edmonton Journal

"What's more entertaining than a dinner party in Bermuda shared by two turbulent British couples, a philandering French captain, an idiosyncratic mother and daughter, and a sassy house staff? How about a topsy-turvy investigation of a double homicide? Add in a bumbling detective and a mysterious blond with amnesia, and you have an uproarious production of While the Lights Were Out." — The Ottawa Citizen

Jack Sharkey (1931-1992) was an exceedingly prolific American playwright who wrote science fiction and humour for magazines before embarking upon his playwriting career. He has 83 published plays written under his own name and four others: Rick Abbot, Monk Ferris, Mark Chandler, and Mike Johnson. Virtually all of his work was written for community theatre.