Fiery performances dominate ‘Lungfish’
By Andrew Tallackson
Staff Writer
MICHIGAN CITY — You’d be hard pressed to find two better performances this year than what Joe Ginnane and Danielle Gendron achieve in “Wrong Turn at Lungfish.”
The play is an engrossing, if somewhat predictable, cousin to Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Wit.” Early on, you have a feeling it’s headed in a certain direction, and it arrives there without many surprises. But that’s fine, because Ginnane and Gendron give fiery, passionate performances that become more powerful as the story nears its emotional climax.
The play, which kicks off Canterbury Summer Theatre’s latest season, centers on Peter Ravenswaal (Ginnane), a former college dean who’s gone blind from a disease that will end his life shortly. Gendron plays Anita Merendino, a working-class woman who volunteers to read to him in his hospital bed.
There is not much that’s likable about Peter. He’s been written as an overbearing pain in the you-know-what, someone angry at life and anyone who stumbles across his path. What Ginanne does is make Peter’s one redeeming trait be his increasingly paternal nature toward Anita. She is the only one who’s reached out to him, and the frantic desperation Ginnane exudes when Peter fears for Anita’s safety late in the play is what finally lets us know that Peter does, indeed, have a heart.
Gendron, a Canterbury newcomer, is his equal. She doesn’t treat Anita as stupid or as a saint. The actress gives her strength, someone who can stand up to Peter, admit her flaws but never demean herself. It’s a complicated balancing act, but the more you embrace Gendron’s performance, the more its many pleasures become evident.
Even the smaller roles resonate. Asha Stichter is ferocious as the nurse whose peppy demeanor is an obvious facade for exhaustion and resentment, while Shane Miller brings danger and uncertainty to Dominic, Anita’s troublesome, often violent boyfriend.
Canterbury Summer Theatre has been on a roll these past few years, and “Wrong Turn at Lungfish” keeps the momentum going. But it does something equally important as well. It shows these summer stock performers have the chops to venture into darker realms. “Wrong Turn at Lungfish” has many light moments, but by the end, the entire cast has sunk its teeth into the material and given it bite, making it a contender for one of the year’s best plays.
Email atallackson@thenewsdispatch.com.
The play is an engrossing, if somewhat predictable, cousin to Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Wit.” Early on, you have a feeling it’s headed in a certain direction, and it arrives there without many surprises. But that’s fine, because Ginnane and Gendron give fiery, passionate performances that become more powerful as the story nears its emotional climax.
The play, which kicks off Canterbury Summer Theatre’s latest season, centers on Peter Ravenswaal (Ginnane), a former college dean who’s gone blind from a disease that will end his life shortly. Gendron plays Anita Merendino, a working-class woman who volunteers to read to him in his hospital bed.
There is not much that’s likable about Peter. He’s been written as an overbearing pain in the you-know-what, someone angry at life and anyone who stumbles across his path. What Ginanne does is make Peter’s one redeeming trait be his increasingly paternal nature toward Anita. She is the only one who’s reached out to him, and the frantic desperation Ginnane exudes when Peter fears for Anita’s safety late in the play is what finally lets us know that Peter does, indeed, have a heart.
Gendron, a Canterbury newcomer, is his equal. She doesn’t treat Anita as stupid or as a saint. The actress gives her strength, someone who can stand up to Peter, admit her flaws but never demean herself. It’s a complicated balancing act, but the more you embrace Gendron’s performance, the more its many pleasures become evident.
Even the smaller roles resonate. Asha Stichter is ferocious as the nurse whose peppy demeanor is an obvious facade for exhaustion and resentment, while Shane Miller brings danger and uncertainty to Dominic, Anita’s troublesome, often violent boyfriend.
Canterbury Summer Theatre has been on a roll these past few years, and “Wrong Turn at Lungfish” keeps the momentum going. But it does something equally important as well. It shows these summer stock performers have the chops to venture into darker realms. “Wrong Turn at Lungfish” has many light moments, but by the end, the entire cast has sunk its teeth into the material and given it bite, making it a contender for one of the year’s best plays.
Email atallackson@thenewsdispatch.com.
If You Go
"Wrong Turn at Lungfish" is today and Saturday at Mainstreet Theatre, 807 Franklin St., followed by "Romance Romance," which runs June 22-July 2. All show times are 2 p.m. Wednesday, 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $13.50 on weeknights and $15 on weekends. Tickets can be ordered at www.festivalplayersguild.org. Call the Mainstreet box office at 874-4269 for additional information.
http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/06/17/features/on_the_go/doc4dfad31c163fc947167748.txt
"Wrong Turn at Lungfish" is today and Saturday at Mainstreet Theatre, 807 Franklin St., followed by "Romance Romance," which runs June 22-July 2. All show times are 2 p.m. Wednesday, 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $13.50 on weeknights and $15 on weekends. Tickets can be ordered at www.festivalplayersguild.org. Call the Mainstreet box office at 874-4269 for additional information.
http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/06/17/features/on_the_go/doc4dfad31c163fc947167748.txt
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