Queens Theatre Troupe (QTT) doesn’t need a big stage to make impactful theatre.
QTT’s winter production, The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine, had its first show on Feb. 4 in Theological Hall Rm. 106. This is the second production QTT has put on at Queen’s in the 2023-24 academic year.
The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine is a two-person show about a couple grappling with the reality of sharing a living space with someone for the first time. These characters go through waves of loving each other to hating each other to growing together.
Production Director and one of five co-founders of QTT, Victoria Marmulak, ArtSci ’24, described The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine as a show about everyday people.
“Ernest and Ernestine are representational, and this story is representative of any close relationship. It could be any couple at any time, so we wanted to represent that in this show.” Marmulak said in an interview with The Journal.
The stylistic choices made by the QTT production team allowed for these characters to look and feel like anyone and everyone all at once. The set and costume designer, Noah Solomon, ArtSci ’24, said the creative process was challenging because of how they wanted to reflect real people.
“The point of the show is this could be anyone, so we didn’t want to give any specifics to anyone. The big challenge was how do we represent people but how do we also make it look like this could be anyone and bring in stylistic choices but also making it feel grounded in natural elements of our time,” Solomon said in an interview with The Journal.
The set and costumes both conveyed the idea that Ernest and Ernestine could be any two people living together for the first time. Ernest, played by Dani Braun, ArtSci ’26, and Ernestine, played by Jaeli Schnoor, ArtSci ’27, wore matching white and grey jumpsuits. The set and props were bathed in a magenta colour.
The contrasting bland costumes against the bright apartment setting emphasized the idea that anyone could be in the space and have similar experiences to those of Ernest and Ernestine.
The lighting design was the best technical element of the show. Despite being staged in a classroom with no lighting grid or lighting board, the characters were illuminated by overhead projectors, swaths of lighting gels, and a multicolour LED light projector.
“Joe Pagnan was one of the first people who introduced me to the concept of set design and really helped build my perspective of design in general. His course, DRAM344 (Scenography), focuses on holistic stories and what it means to represent something holistically instead of just visually,” Solomon said.
There was never a dull moment when it came to complementing every character interaction through lighting.
In comparison, the sound design fell short, as it wasn’t as present throughout the show as it could’ve been. There were lots of scenes and transitions that could’ve benefitted from music and background noise to keep the energy flowing, especially in moments where Ernest and Ernestine went from loving each other to screaming at each other.
Both Braun and Schnoor delivered excellent performances and embodied the essence of clown. The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine is rooted in clown practice and aims to bring the humour and comedy of clown into everyday human experiences.
I would have liked to see the clown aspect reflected in even more of the production elements. I think having more comedic effects shown through lighting, sound, and set would’ve heightened the humour of the show and given the actors more to play with as well.
It’s refreshing to see different theatrical styles making their way through the student theatre community at Queen’s, and witnessing the impact of arts education in real time indicates a bright future for the DAN School of Drama and Music.
The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine is playing in Theological Hall until Feb. 10. Tickets can be purchased here.
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