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| Valerie Vigoda and Wade McCollum (photo by Jeff Carpenter) |
Ernest Shackleton Loves Me
Through May 3
A hallucinating new mother/musician conjures explorer Ernest
Shackleton via Skype to help her weather the winter storms of her failed
relationship and her disappearing job in Balagan’s newest show. Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (in a
co-production with both Seattle Repertory Theatre and ACT Theatre) is a tour de
force performance from both of its two stars!
ESLM is well worth
a visit. It’s a dense sound-and-light, rocking, lyrical extravaganza, with a bit
of hootenanny thrown in.
Valerie Vigoda is both the lyric writer (book by Joe
DiPietro and music by Brendan Milburn) and the hallucinating musician who
creates the music right in front of us through the use of automated keyboards,
sound looping, playback, an electric violin, and even an old reel-to-reel tape
recorder! Vigoda is a wonder as we watch her swiftly and deliberately latch on
her violin and flip switches and
sing! She has a gorgeous voice, too.