Tuesday, February 14, 2006
The playwright revised the play he wrote in 1992.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Victorian Players' production of "Night Light" opened this weekend. Written by local playwright Brian Lee, the play is a series of six vignettes that take place in the bedroom.
Lee said he came up with the idea when he realized how much takes place in the bedroom: the beginning and ending of life, relationships, arguments and everything in between.
The play begins as a young, playful couple, played by Ryan Jones and Melisa Trickett, plan their future and make a vow to always be yuppies. They have just returned from their honeymoon to find that their power has been accidentally shut off.
In the next scene, Terri Labedz portrays a very pregnant woman who is notably irritable because her delivery is two weeks and three days overdue. She is driving her husband, Brian Gillespie, up a wall, as he tries to convince her that he feels her nausea and cramps. She finds this to be an opportune moment to tell him what a lazy and irresponsible lout he is, reminding him that his mother kept a snow shovel in his bedroom year round just to clear a path to his bed. This comedy sketch has a clever ending, but it doesn't happen until curtain call!
What's next
The next scene switches to very emotional drama, as two sisters are reunited at their mother's funeral. Rachel has been living in England, and this is her first trip home in 20 years.
The pace of this scene is very intriguing. Their conversation seems quite meaningless at first, as the audience wonders what these two people are really about. We think we understand the dynamics of their relationship, and the reasons one sister is angry, until the whole story is revealed. This was an excellent performance by Cheryl Goodlin and Patti Dorsey.
Bizarrely enough, the characters in the fourth vignette were the most real and believable. The twist was that the husband had been dead for 14 years and returned, in body and soul, for a short reunion with his wife.
This one is Lee's writing at its best: sweet, charming, romantic and sometimes insulting -- very representative of a couple who have been in love for a long, long time.
The comedy was poignant and the chemistry was perfect between JoAnn Winterbauer and Jim Sullivan, in this lovely, heartwarming piece.
From there, we moved to the totally off-the-wall, as a wimpy, geeky virgin named Herman (Charles Wilcox) gets robbed by the widow of a mobster, Sally (Kim Kaufman). It turns out they were classmates, and Herman has been in love with Sally all these years. She robs people to support her "addiction," and while she tries to play rough, she has a soft heart.
The play ends with the first couple, 40 years later. Has the romance gone out of their marriage?
This is a revised version of a work Lee wrote in 1992, which has been performed locally and in other parts of Ohio. It continues next weekend, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Call (330) 746-5455 for ticket information. The Victorian Players Theatre is located at 702 Mahoning Ave.