The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine

Welcome to this production of The Anger of Ernest and Ernestine. We are very excited to get started on the show and hope you are as well!
Ernest and Ernestine are a newlywed couple who don’t have a lot of money. They just bought their first home, a basement apartment. Ernestine works at a hat shop, and it is not until part way through the first act that Ernest decides it is appropriate for him to get a job. They are clearly living a modest life – unable to afford an above ground apartment let alone have the furnace in the one they do live in professionally repaired. Newlyweds just moving in together means they will have to adjust to the other person’s living style. Ernest and Ernestine believe in love, it is apparent in the song they sing in the first scene. Which means, they are left to work as hard as they can to maintain it. Living in their new home and discovering each others quirks acts as a vehicle for the arguments that arise between them. With our production, we want to explore the ideas of anger and how we repress and express it. Ernest and Ernestine have a very idealistic idea of marriage. They believe they should never have any problems or disagreements, so when they do, they find ways around them. Often times, theatrical stories of love are either radically romanticized or are based on the idea of turmoil and destruction in a very dramatic way. Ernest and Ernestine is a breather from these. It’s an abstracted realistic look at a couple that is so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh at their pitfalls and arguments. They are a nudge of ridiculousness in a world dead set on looking for answers. Who knows, maybe Ernest and Ernestine can help us discover what it means to love.

M and B