THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Those who roam the darkness often tend to idealize the light. Paula Vogel, a playwright whose substantial reputation rests on exposure of the disturbing secrets underlying placid surfaces, declares the goal of A Civil War Christmas to be "something the children in my family can see." But whether motivated by unconscious impulses or mercantile interests, the awkwardness of a writer navigating an unfamiliar genre is evident.

Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow's phenomenally popular 1975 novel, reversed the then-standard conventions of historical fiction by conjuring an intricate landscape populated by imaginary citizens interacting with the great figures of the past, all now portrayed with equal intimacy ( some say "audacity" ) by authors proffering insight into the psychology of actual persons. But literary conceits tolerable in a "subway read" are not as readily adaptable to the abbreviated environment of a play. You're not likely to find a comfortable page-to-stage Christmas Carol, for example, without huge portions of the original prose missing.

But modern sensibilities demand diversity, and so the swarm of personnel in our nation's capital this Christmas Eve in 1864 includes: a slave as yet ignorant of emancipation fleeing north with her daughter. A blacksmith bent on avenging his wife, kidnapped by Texas rebels ( her name was Rose, as in "Yellow Rose of Texas" ) . A dying Jewish soldier whose mind recalls Hebrew chants that harmonize with the "Silent Night" crooned by a well-meaning nurse. The residents of the White House ( both First Family and servants ) . John Wilkes Booth and his cohorts. Generals and armies, Union and Confederate. The spirits of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Walt Whitman ( whom Vogel likens to St. Nicholas ) . A Quaker abolitionist, a runaway Virginia boy and an anthropomorphic horse ( whose fate we never learn ) . And many, many more.

But who cares if this Northlight production serves up enough holiday-mandated sentimentality to make It's A Wonderful Life look like Naughty And Naughtier? Vogel's overdecorated tree has individual moments to please every demographic, and the presence in the cast of such local favorites as Felicia P. Fields and Paula Scrofano, flanked by sturdy supporting players and a children's chorus, warbling a score of public-domain ballads provides a wholesome, if innocuous, alternative for audiences reluctant to brave the downtown crowds in their search for yuletide cheer.