Presents

By Steven Dietz
Based on the original play by Patrick Hamilton
Directed by Jessica Thebus

Opening Night December 4, 2025

“Gaslight (Dietz)” is presented by arrangement with Concord
Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
www.concordtheatricals.com

Video and/or audio recording of this performance 
by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited.

This production will be performed with a 15-minute intermission.

Lead

Jennifer Christensen
Tiffany and Tobi Laczkowski
Bob and Charlene Shaw
Greg and Anne Taubeneck
Freddi Greenberg and Dan Pinkert 

Presenting
Donna and Gene Frett
Marie and Arch McKellar

Northlight first produced Angel Street, the Patrick Hamilton play on which Gaslight is based, in 1980. Some years later, Steven Dietz wrote Lonely Planet, one of the first plays about AIDS, and it was our first experience with Steven. It was an important play, and it cemented a relationship that has lasted to this day.

Clearly, our audience enjoys a good thriller, and to have Steven, with the blessing of the Patrick Hamilton estate, adapt the original under the title Gaslight is an exciting opportunity.

I like the idea of bringing back artists who have contributed to our legacy of 50 years and returning to some of the material that has been refreshed.

At this time of year, when everyone is doing a holiday play, it’s fun to go in the opposite direction and give our audience a bit of relief from the hurly-burly of the season. We call it “counter-programming.”

The spine of Gaslight is the manipulation of truth, and the word has been resurrected recently to describe what is happening in our world. Not unlike The First Lady of Television, Gaslight refocuses the present through the lens of the past. I suppose it feels safer that way, but in this moment, it feels just as creepy and cruel.

So, Happy Holidays! ;) And persevere!

-BJ Jones

Q&A with the Playwright

BJ: What was it that inspired you to adapt the Patrick Hamilton play?

Steven Dietz: I have an enduring obsession with thrillers for the stage, and have been fortunate to write and premiere several of them. I’ve long believed that Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight (originally titled “Angel Street”) is the gold standard of stage thrillers. With the support of the Hamilton estate, I was granted the chance to renovate and update the existing play, while hewing closely to the remarkable twists and turns in the original. It’s been a delight and an education to do so.    

BJ: The term gaslight has become fashionable in a pejorative way, and its current meaning is perfectly embodied by the play. Can you talk about that?

SD: Its meaning is not just embodied by the play; the phrase itself came from the play. Though it has now become ubiquitous, the notion of “gaslighting” started with this 1938 play in which a husband is trying to make his wife think she is going crazy. The eerie, flickering gas-flamed lights in the play are used to signal both Bella’s suspicions and her devastating fears. In 2022, eighty-one years after the play premiered on Broadway, “gaslighting” was named the word of the year by Merriam-Webster.

BJ: Your version has comedy in it, which attracted me to your script. That release is structurally valuable to the tightening tension. 

SD: I agree with you about that “release.” Gaslight is not a drama; it is a thriller. The difference means that there is a consciously heightened sense of urgency and danger. It is this same heightened quality that frees the story to have moments of comedy, however desperate the situation. Sergeant Rough, as written, is a fundamentally comic character who just happens to be on a deadly serious mission. Finally, much of this play operates on our empathy for Bella’s dire situation. And there is nothing more empathic than humor. 

(in order of appearance)

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers

Danielle Zuckerman Bella Manningham/Police Officer
Gavin Rhys Morgan Jack Manningham
Shawna Franks Elizabeth/Police Officer
Audrey S. Romero Nancy
Nathan Reilly Sergeant Rough

Assistant Director Tae Heum Yeon
ASSOCIATE COSTUME DESIGNER Lia Wallfish
WIG COORDINATOR AND ARTISAN Megan E. Pirtle
Specialty Props Jim Guy

LORT Theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE. This Theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Manager's in the United States.

BJ Jones
Artistic Director

Timothy J. Evans
Executive Director