1.   Minsk is very dark at night, with only the occasional streetlight or splash of neon to pierce the gloom.

2.   It was a black day for Serbia, but a ray of light pierced the gloom of defeat.

3.   Its gloom is initially pierced by ominous music and cone-shaped shafts of light that rarely appear during the rest of the play.

4.   A few lights fed by a generator pierce the gloom.