Review: ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME at Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre

This was a first for me: a multi-media, two-person production with extraordinary visuals and effects, live music, and its own quirky sense of humor--from the frist thunder clap.  Brendan Milburn's score, which felt atonal and through-composed, might not sound like the classic musicals of the past--shows with an 11 o'clock song that you were humming as you left the theater and remember for the rest of your life.  Nevertheless, it supports Valerie "Val" Vigoda's narrative, expository lyrics.  And of course, Music Director Stephen Hulsey works his magic.  The vocal harmonies are outstanding.

Sarah Manton exhibits her talent as both a singer and violinist.  She plays Kat, a single mother who has just been abandoned by her roadie musician boyfriend Bruce. After a 36-hour marathon working session composing electronic music for video games, an anxious Kat loses the job without explanation.  The camera work that connects her to the outside world is nothing short of sensational.

Matt Miles, in his CV Rep debut, bursts out of the set in a mist of frosty air as Ernest Shackleton.  Who is this man?  And why are his brows and moustache covered with ice crystals?  And why does he show up in Kat's Brooklyn apartment? 

First, Matt is an award-winning actor and singer with an amazing baritone to countertenor range.  Ernest Shackleton is Anglo-Irish explorer who led three expeditions to Antarctica in the early twentieth century. In her sleep-deprived dream/fantasy world, Kat hits a wrong button on her console and is connected with the past.  

Ernest is charming.  Kat is vulnerable.  So she and her baby join him and his crew on the ship Endurance on what would be the second of his three voyages (1914-16).  But lo!  The Endurance gets stuck in the ice.  Kat and Ernest are charged with finding land and then with rescuing the crew.  And they do.  But first they have a moment of lovey-doveyness. What an adventure--ending in Kat's Brooklyn apartment.  That's all I'll tell you, or I'll spoil the story.

Craig Wells elicits plenty of sentiment from Joe DiPietro's book.  I expect we'll see his work again at CV Rep.