'NIGHT LIGHT' 6 vignettes are set in bedroom

The local playwright substituted another scene for one that contained violence.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- Victorian Players in Youngstown has added another production to its season line-up.
"Night Light," written by local playwright Brian Lee, was first performed in 1992 at Trumbull New Theatre.
Lee is directing the play, which is a set of six vignettes -- conversations that all take place in a bedroom.
Through his marriage, Lee began to realize just how much of life takes place in the bedroom.
"Life is created in the bedroom, and death often happens there as well," said Lee. "Relationships are created and dissolved; arguments, reconciliations. Futures are planned. The bedroom is the core of the house. When you're married, that's where you talk about everything."
It was through this realization that the idea for "Night Light" evolved.
Each scene is a glimpse into the lives of two people and situations. Lee describes the moods as ranging from happy to sad, hysterical and romantic.
The first scene is about a newlywed couple in their 20s, planning their future in their new home after the honeymoon, when the electricity gets cut off by accident.
Other scenes
The second scene is a couple in their 30s having their first baby. "This one is hysterical," said Lee. "It is about the insanity of a new mother whose baby is two weeks overdue." Brian Gillespie and Terri Labedz play the roles in the scene, called "Shawn and Edgar."
"The wife is very pregnant and at wits end," said Gillespie. "She says things that really annoy the husband, such as calling actors by their character name rather than their real name. She calls Charlton Heston 'Moses' and Burgess Meredith 'The Penguin.' He tries to be understanding but alternates between being psycho and sweet, and at one point contemplates strangling her."
Lee said the third vignette is more poignant. "It is two sisters talking in the bedroom during their mother's wake over Thanksgiving weekend. One sister had moved to England 20 years ago, and this is her first trip back home."
The fourth scene is actually making its premiere. It is about a lady in her 60s whose deceased husband returns as a ghost after 14 years. Lee says it is a sweet, romantic comedy.
The fifth scene takes place in a New York apartment. A man in his 30s is being robbed by a lady burglar, and it turns out they went to high school together, so they reminisce.
The last vignette portrays what happens to the first couple, 40 years later.
Lee said that the play became modestly successful in the '90s, so he began writing a sequel. "I wrote three more vignettes, and the scene about the ghost is one of them," said Lee.
"In the original TNT performance, one of the scenes was about domestic violence," Lee said. "We even hired stage combat experts to do this one, and it was very realistic. But since Victorian Players has a policy against doing violent scenes, I decided to substitute one of the scenes that has never been performed."
The play has also been performed outside the area, including dinner-theater performances by the Curtain Players in Westerville, Ohio.