Tynan later said of the rehearsal process, "This was farce rehearsed in farce conditions." Owing to scheduling difficulties at Chichester, "Black Comedy" was given very little rehearsal time, and it opened without a single public preview. The play was directed by John Dexter – who had directed Shaffer's previous play "The Royal Hunt of the Sun", and later directed "Equus" – with what Shaffer called "blazing precision." He added that "it was acted with unmatchable brio by Smith and Finney, by Derek Jacobi as an incomparable Brindsley, and by Graham Crowden as a savagely lunatic Colonel Melkett".