Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
In 1915, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton heroically rescued all of his crew from a stranding in antarctic ice. In 2020, creative artists around the world found themselves stranded in the doldrums of forced lockdowns, their own resources their only hopes for rescue. The solution for actor-puppeteer Carlo Adinolfi and writer-director Renee Philippi was a new story. Via low-tech, high-concept theater and puppetry their Concrete Temple Theatre production, Ernie’s Secret Life, recounts the tale of a man’s search for his absconded son, with Shackleton as spiritual guide. Sweet and charming, with Adinolfi at the center and a crew of puppeteers rigging the masts and swabbing the decks, the show warms the heart and sparks the sense of wonder even as the story sometimes drifts with the wind.
Ernie (Adinolfi) begins with a brief sum-up of the Shackleton mission. Cardboard flats were never so expressive, shuffling about Punch and Judy-style within a frame suggesting a children’s puppet show. But Ernie’s own story is the meat of the show, told on the wider canvas of the full stage.
The fragility of the bare-bones set seems to reflect that of Ernie’s sense of self-worth. Berating himself for being an inattentive father to his son Danny, he has at last built the rowboat Danny had always wanted them to craft together. It’s too late – Danny has fled New York for Nova Scotia. But detecting in a postcard a hidden cry for help, Ernie and his little boat sally forth to the rescue, diving into a magical-realist world of bus trips, sentient fires, ferocious fish, and forlorn strangers.
A Mixed Bag of Tricks
Some story elements contribute substantively to the central exploration of the soul of a family man, as when silhouettes behind a screen simply but powerfully explore Ernie’s relationship with his wife. Others develop the show’s airy atmosphere with humor that’s somehow both wry and childlike. Some, like some of the undersea action, seem to be there just to entertain with inventive, expressive puppetry and prop manipulation. Still others feel important but we don’t know why, as when Ernie finally finds Danny and discovers that the boy has taken a job straight out of Greek mythology. The result is a bit of a narrative jumble. But, aided by compelling music (Joe Phillips) and evocative lighting and sound (Eric Nightengale), the show keeps us in its pocket through puppet magic and the soft-spoken charm and plaintive determination of Adinolfi’s Ernie.
Ernest Shackleton’s career was not remotely one of unbroken success, but today he’s considered a great British hero. Ernie’s Secret Life tells of the heroic quest of an ordinary Ernie who, armed with nothing but a map, a homemade rowboat, and some pluck, achieves a kind of rescue of the self – something we all needed amid the pandemic.
Ernie’s Secret Life is at Dixon Place in NYC through January 27. Tickets and schedule are available online.
