The Anger of Ernest and Ernestine: Vacant House Theatre presents a fun staging of play

Being in love with someone and love are two very different things. The first is a breathless kind of Bora that awakens in you a temporary madness. It’s a volcano of sweet emotion that sweeps you off your feet and prevents you from thinking straight, especially about the object of your emotion. Their every quirk is endearing and every second spent apart from their lips is the worst kind of torture. Love, on the other hand, is what’s left over after this temporary madness subsides. You are suddenly left with a person, annoying quirks, terrible taste in music, and all. That’s when the true test of compatibility begins, as Ernest and Ernestine find out in The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine when they get married in a rush of emotion born out of being in love. Their relationship slowly starts to disintegrate from the inside out as the two opposites begin really getting to know each other in David Whiteley’s quite adept production for Vacant House Theatre.

Ernest is a sweet, albeit uptight and prudish dreamer, while Ernestine is a free spirit, much more comfortable in a chaotic life than one filled with order and rules.   The realization that the two aren’t exactly perfect for each other is a realization that the two ecstatic newlyweds come to slowly throughout the play, rage seeping through their every pore as they try to keep up a modicum of middle class politeness and civility. The play finally comes to head in a hyperbolic scene; a crescendo of emotion akin to relief after all the repressed anger and frustration eating at Ernest and Ernestine’s marriage for 85 minutes.

Director David Whiteley has chosen to represent the anger in Ernest and Ernestine through two separate actors (Nicholas Wade Fournier and Alexis Scott, respectively), a choice that lends a lot of energy to and creates a dynamic in the performance. The play is performed in the somewhat claustrophobic  Ernest and Ernestine is a physical comedy first, with the dialogue coming in secondary. This can be tricky to stage, especially for recent graduates, such as the members of Vacant House Theatre. It involves extremely precise comedic timing, and needs to combine the best of over the top clowning with more subtle gestures to fill out the performance. All in all, the cast and crew did a very adequate job – there were moments that were genuinely funny and the exaggerated movements and faces of the cast were well-timed and just exaggerated enough.

Whiteley could have definitely pulled back in some of the scenes, as some moments were either too exaggerated, resulting in more yelling than acting on stage, or too chaotic, making it hard to follow what was going on. The audience interaction, if it’s even needed, could have also been done more aptly. While cute for a moment, there’s really no need to break out of character and thank an audience member for participating. We get it. It’s a play and we’re all performing in the play of the stage and life. However despite these hiccups, the play had more good moments than bad and was rather enjoyable to watch.

Whiteley also used the very small and cramped space in the Backpackers Inn very well, converting lockers and washing machines into cupboards and fridges as needed. The play has a claustrophobic feel anyway and the location fit in quite nicely, though there were times when I thought the very tall Fournier would actually hit his head on the ceiling.

The performance was rounded out by refreshingly solid performances from all four cast members. Again, there were a couple of moments when a bit more subtlety would have been better than exaggeration, but overall a job well done!

The venue only allows for 12 people to see the play at a time. I would highly recommend checking this young company out and following their work as, judging from this performance, I am very excited to see what they will do in the future.

The Anger of Ernest and Ernestine plays at the Ottawa Backpackers in April 4-6, 11-13, and 25-27

 

The Anger of Ernest and Ernestine

Director: David Whiteley

Stage Manager: Natasha Graham

Ernest: Patrick Kelly

Ernestine: Karina Milech

The Anger of Ernest: Nicholas Wade Fournier

The Anger of Ernestine: Alexis Scott

 

Poster Design: Brittany Norris

PR and Production Assistant: Madeleine Hall