Hey You, Light Man!
by Oliver Hailey

THE STORY: Ashley Knight (real name Orville Sheden), a leading man, has decided to live onstage in the set of his current hit.

The play being a sophisticated comedy, the set is quite lavish.

As he is settling down, brandy in hand, a woman comes out of the empty orchestra and asks directions for getting out of the theatre.

She has fallen asleep during the performance, and now the doors are locked.

This is Lula Roca, a rather plain and frumpy young widow whose husband, a stagehand, was recently killed by a falling sandbag.

Ashley persuades her to come onstage, and then to stay with him for the night.

Soon she is drawn into the realms of illusion in which Ashley has sought escape from his own rather drab reality.

The next morning she goes off to round up her best friend to show her the magical life into which she has fallen, and while she is gone Ashley is visited by his oafish son—the inescapable reminder of the limiting responsibilities from which he has tried to remove himself.

From then on, it is a matter of conflicting worlds.

Eventually the pressure of the “outside” one forces the two lovers to flee to another theatre, this time with a drab, prison set, but Ashley (with an assist from the light man) manages to conjure up a sense of excitement and beauty just the same.

In the end, however, the truth must be faced.

Sooner or later reality will come nipping at their heels, with responsibilities that cannot be ignored.

Their idyll is illusive at best.

Ashley goes back to his family, Lula to what's left of her own life—a little sadder, but a little wiser too.