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Hollie Andrew and John McTernan.

Hollie Andrew, John McTernan and Natalie Fulton.

Dominic De Caesar, Hollie Andrew and John McTernan.

All photos: Steve Lunam

Wrong Turn at Lungfish

(Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli, Sydney, until 11 October)

You could say this is a play about salvation. She (Anita Merendino – Hollie Andrew) is saved from a future of abuse, ignorance and dependency and He (Peter Ravenswaal – John McTernan) is saved from a bitter and lonely death. But that might suggest a sombre and moralistic play, which is definitely not the case.

In fact there are many good laughs to be had in a night out at the Ensemble Theatre enjoying Wrong Turn at Lungfish written by Garry Marshall & Lowell Ganz, and first performed off Broadway in the early 1990s. The extended pauses waiting for the audience’s hoots and guffaws to settle down are evidence of that.

The story is pretty straightforward. Mr Ravenswaal, a former College Dean, is dying. His illness has caused him to become blind. He is angry, bewildered and frightened so opts to make everyone’s life miserable, especially that of his young Nurse (Natalie Fulton), as his way of coping with not coping.

He is visited in his bland hospital room by Anita, a young volunteer reader with an angel’s face, a vamp’s body, and a New Jersey whine for which Jennifer White, the Dialect Coach must be commended. What follows is a Pygmalion-like conversion, but with a few individual twists and variations to the tale.

Dominic De Caesar (Jonathon Freeman), Anita’s boyfriend, is one such twist. Street smart, amoral and ‘crazy as a coconut’, he provides the subject for some sharp humour as well as delivering some good lines himself.

But Hollie Andrew as Anita is the stand out, both for the delivery of the humour in her role and for her convincing portrayal of deep emotion in the dying moments of the play. Her pragmatic method of combating lecherous Lotharios in the workplace by judicious application of fellatio gives you a hint of the crossplay of cultural mores thrown up for contemplation. 

The New York Times said of this play “The script can only be considered literate by the television standards that seem to have governed its’ writing”. I think that is elitist and unfair.

The writers were responsible for TV shows such as Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and The Odd Couple, Marshall directed movies such as Pretty Woman and Beaches and yes, there are signs of the sitcom background, but it works — even the running first-name joke re Dean or Peter. It is not froth and bubble, and deeper issues of the human condition emerge through the humour and the pathos.

Sexual harassment, the meaning of life, and evolution all get a turn – hence the title. In consideration of their frailties and failings, Dean Peter proposes that humans may well be a result of a wrong turn at the evolutionary stage of lungfish.