Wrong Turn at Lungfish – Viking Theatre – Review by Frank L.

Written by Garry Marshall and Lowell Ganz

Until July 2

Written in 1990, the action takes place in a New York City hospital. Mr. Ravenswall (Stephen Burns), a widower and a former dean of a university, recently went blind and is in bed with a multiplicity of medical problems. He is not coming to terms with his blindness.  Anita Merendino (Clodagh Mooney Duggan) a young girl of easy virtue arrives, as part of some hospital do-gooder scheme, to read to him rather elevated texts such as T.S. Eliot, Baudelaire and Keats. Mr. Ravenswall is not an easy patient. In fact he is verging on the bloody minded. The Nurse (Doireann Mac Mahon) represents not only herself but the whole necessary order of a hospital such as the enforcer of hospital visiting times. Dominic de Caesar (Rex Ryan) who does not appear until the second act, but is often mentioned by Anita in the first, is a low grade, not overly bright, criminal thug whom Anita loves. The main protagonists are however Mr. Ravenswall and Anita. This is a well tried formula, think Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw for instance. However the characters delineated by Marshall and Ganz in their script have none of the complexities that Shaw gave Professor Higgins and Liza Doolittle. Each of the four characters, as written, are more or less stereotypes so it is hard to be transported by the story which unfolds.

That said Clodagh Mooney Duggan brings flair and a brassy charm to the role of Anita and when she is on stage she generates a certain electricity and empathy as she seeks to balance her love for Dominic with the reality that he is not worth her devotion. Her more elevated discussions with Mr. Ravenswall are less credible but she keeps a comic energy alive throughout. There are indeed some clever one liners now and again which raise a laugh. That said perhaps the play as a whole is not standing the test of time.

Written by Gary Marshall & Lowell Ganz
Directed by Breda Cashe
Starring Clodagh Mooney Duggan, Stephen Burns, Doireann MacMahon & Rex Ryan