Posted by Sari

The Importance of Being Earnest is one of those plays I know almost by heart – this blog is even named after a quotation. This is Wilde’s  most unsentimental, sharp and quotable comedy, and has the added poignancy that it was written and rehearsed in the middle of Wilde’s quarrel with marquis of Queensberry which eventually lead to his trial just few months after the premiere.

This light and tight farce is the story of two Victorian batchelors, Algernon and Jack who both have created alter-egos for themselves to get to enjoy themselves without their families knowing. They also want to marry their sweethearths Gwendolyn and Cecily, efforts which are blocked by Gwendolyn’s formidable mother Lady Bracknell, and, of course, both objects of desire’s insistance of marrying only a man named Ernest.

Professor Katherine Worth has said, that in this play ”it is vital for the actors seem unaware of the absurdity of what they do and say.” (Katherine Worth: Oscar Wilde, Macmillan, 1989). The dialogue is everything in this play, and Wilde’s famous bon mots must be given time to breathe. This production does not follow this suggestion. It not only exaggerates the dialogue, it also winks at the audience, and has a few  wholly fourth wall breaking moments. The muffins-scene ends with Jack yelling ”we’ve covered the scene change, just go!”

It does work, up to a point, and I understand the reasoning why the production has gone to more pysical and farcical direction. First thing that does work well is lifting the queer context of the play to front and centre. Flamboyant cross-dressing Algernon gives bunburying a whole new meaning, and the the little perplexed and fond glances between Cecily and Gwendolen fit surprisingly well with the dialogue of their on-again, off-again friendship. I also appreciated the inclusion of physical want in the production, and found it interesting that it was the women who were depicted as sexual beings much more than men.

What I thought was less succesful was the busyness of the production. The cast was always moving, getting up or down, changing chairs, running up or down the stage. Sometimes the tableaux formed this way were a nice reminder of the idea of the play being all surfaces and style and not substance, but I did find the busyness distracting. Same went with the bit shouty dialogue, especially from Jack and Gwendolen.

I don’t think there is production of The Importance of Being Earnest ever staged, where Lady Bracknell does not steal the show. The West End transfer of this production has Stephen Fry playing the part to great acclaim, in this original National Theatre show the part is played by Sharon D Clarke. She dominates the state in her colourful dresses and hedgear and does deliver Lady Bracknell’s endless stream of witty oneliners with verve and wonderful Caribbean accent.

Ncuti Gatwa as Alrgenon and Hugh Skinner as Jack were also good. It took Gatwa some time to get into the role, and as the more overtly queer of the pair, his sudden love for Cecily never seems quite sincere, but his confidence and deivery of the lines work very well. Skinner is the more earnest of the two, and he is all the time on the brink of falling apart. Sometimes it is a bit annoying, but there is payback in the end when he first asks Lady Bracknell ”I hate to seem inquisitive, but would you kindly inform me who I am?”, and then joyously accepts his new identity by introducing Algernon as his ”unfortunate brother” to everybody. He brings real emotion to this denouement.

Ronke Adékọluẹ́jọ́’s Gwendolyn is refreshingly not prim and proper but lively and inquisitive, and Eliza Scanlen’s Cecily was suitably spoiled, and seemed sometimes to channel Queenie from Blackadder 2. Their scenes together were some of the best ones in the show.

All in all, though it was more extravagant, artificial and aware of it self than I would prefer, it worked well as its own thing. And Wilde’s language always shines.