Excerpted from The Toledo Blade, Toledo, Ohio November 12, 2003
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73155919679031&Avis=TO&Dato=20031112&Kategori=ART10&Lopenr=111120098&Ref=AR
Fine cast gives ‘Lungfish’ a foundation of laughter
By NANCIANN CHERRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Wrong Turn at Lungfish is a character-driven comedy about living and
dying. In the wrong hands, it could be cheap rather than funny, sappy rather
than poignant.
The Village Players do not put it in the wrong hands.
Norb Mills, who has won several Ohio Community Theater Awards, plays one of the
two main characters, a college professor who has gone blind and is in the
hospital, dying. Rachel Wengrow portrays Anita, a young woman who comes in to
read to him once a week.
The pair are utter opposites. The professor, Peter Ravens-waal, is erudite and
learned, a brilliant man who is awaiting his end, bitter at the hand life has
dealt him: the loss of his wife, his blindness, and the fact that he is
dependent on those who aren’t even close to being his intellectual equals.
Anita has a high school education - maybe. Ravenswaal finds her conversational
skills basic, her laugh grating (and she laughs a lot), and her refusal to be
put off by his distinct lack of gratitude infuriating.
And though they come to care about each other, there are still plenty of
surprises.
Wrong Turn at Lungfish was written by Lowell Ganz and Garry Marshall. The
former wrote A League of Their Own and Parenthood; the latter
created Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and Mork and Mindy.
With that lineage, it’s obvious that the play is filled with witty dialogue, but
even better, it has a solid foundation of credibility.
Mills and Wengrow keep their characters sympathetic even as they exasperate one
another. One, the other, or both are in every scene, and it’s a true pleasure to
watch their work.
They are ably assisted by Angela Gage and Ben Lumbrezer. Gage, in her first
speaking role, was a little tentative on opening night, but it fit her
character, a student nurse at wit’s end with the cranky Ravenswaal. Lumbrezer,
whose past appearances at the Village Players include Benedick in Much Ado
about Nothing and George in Of Mice and Men is one of those
performers who makes the most of a role, no matter how large or small.
Co-directors John Henry and D. Nicholas Hansen guide their cast with a sure
hand, giving them space to expand on their characters but reining in any
tendencies to overact or go for the easy emotions.
"Wrong Turn at Lungfish" continues through Nov. 22 at the Village Players
Theatre, 2740 Upton Ave. Curtain times are 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m.
Sunday. Admission is $14 for adults and $12 for seniors and students from the
box office, 419-472-6817.
Last Modified: 12/10/03