THEATER REVIEWS : Cast in a Good ‘Light’ : Insightful, Sensitive Performances Illuminate a Fine Romantic Comedy

The rough-textured, authentically Manhattan romantic comedy “Light Sensitive,” by Jim Geoghan, is one of those plays that can look simplistic without performances of depth to give it a solid base beneath the deceptively bare-bones plot.

Tom Hanratty (David Rousseve) was born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen. Before he was blinded during a drunken spree with his pal Lou D’Marco (Steve McCammon), Tom was known as the “fastest white cabdriver in New York.” Lou has taken care of him for eight years but is off to Vermont with his new lady friend and arranges for Edna Miles (Karen Mangano), from the Lighthouse for the Blind, to help out.

Tom is totally bent out of shape by this turn of events, and the growth of affection, and finally love, between him and plain, crippled Edna has a delicate balance in the writing that is managed with insight and affection by director Mario Lescot at Theatre District. It’s not an easy balance, and the subtlety with which it is handled here is just right for Geoghan’s brash, ultimately sensitive writing.

Lescot’s casting couldn’t be better. The role of Tom holds many pitfalls, and Rousseve hurdles them as though his character could see. He appears to be blind, and his obvious research has paid off.

The seamless transitions in Tom’s reactions and emotional waffling--some of them instantaneous--are accomplished with style, and he has captured the rhythms and knee-jerks of a working-class Manhattanite in truthful detail.

*

Mangano’s Edna is close to Rousseve’s Tom, but Geoghan hasn’t given Edna the theatrical fireworks to play with that Rousseve has given Tom. It’s necessarily more bland and thankless, except for her long speech in Act 2 explaining the meaning of love, which Mangano delivers with warm insight and as much emotional force as the speech can stand.

As Tom’s bartender friend Lou, whose Vermont trip is a disaster, McCammon maintains the right rough edge, along with a sort of bull-in-a-china-shop masculine striving toward his own sensitivity.

The setting, by the mysteriously named Two Blue Chairs Inc., is not as authentic as it might appear--not at all like a real Hell’s Kitchen railroad-flat, and with a totally wrong window, even though it does have a fire escape outside. But the atmosphere is there, and that’s what matters.

* “Light Sensitive,” Theatre District, 2930 Bristol St., Suite C-106, Costa Mesa. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. Ends Sunday. $15. (714) 435-4043. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

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David Rousseve: Tom Hanratty

Karen Mangano: Edna Miles

Steve McCammon: Lou D’Marco

A Theatre District production of Jim Geoghan’s romantic comedy, produced by Bonnie Vise. Directed by Mario Lescot, assisted by Joan Lescot. Scenic design: Two Blue Chairs Inc. Lighting design: Sharon Evans. Stage manager: Debbie Kissinger.