The Importance of Being Earnest, Aug 3, 2000

 By Oscar Wilde

 Princess Theatre from August 24, 2000

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a very funny play and this Anglo-Australian production boasts a very fine performance from English actress, Patricia Routledge, as the inimitable and legendary Lady Bracknell. Routledge commands attention and has impeccable comic timing.

The play must be presented as a period costume drama but this production is a little dusty. It is inappropriate to update a Wilde play but a production can take some risks.  In this Chichester Festival version, English director, Christopher Morahan, maintains a conservative line throughout.

The Importance of Being Earnest was Wilde's last performed play before he was gaoled on charges related to homosexuality. It is the epitome of Wilde's style. Upper class snobs of the late 19th century compete for the wittiest quips and most foolish behaviour.

Oscar Wilde whimsically noted  his idea of happiness as "absolute power over men's minds, even if accompanied by toothache." His idea of misery was, "living a poor and respectable life in an obscure village."

Indeed, his initially charmed life fulfilled his aspirations. His comedies were popular, he commanded enormous public and private attention with his wit and intellect, he was affluent and acceptably naughty - until his imprisonment.

John Worthing  (Alistair Petrie), posing as a man called Earnest, visits his friend, Algernon (Theo Fraser Steele) and proposes to Gwendolen (Essie Davis). Gwendolen believes she can love only a man called Earnest.

Cecily (Sarah Kants) also wants a husband called Earnest. "There's something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence."

The script is riddled with arch dialogue and memorable Wildean epithets. Lady Bracknell: "Never speak disrespectfully of  society. Only people who can't get into it do that."

Wilde mocks the inanities of his own class in the same way Moliere did earlier in France.  His characters are self-centred, acquisitive, conceited, foolish and shallow.  As Gwendolen says, "I never change, except in my affections."

As Gwendolen, Davis is pert and versatile and Kants is credible as the country lass.  Steele is foppish and quirky as Algie, milking the gags mercilessly and Petrie, as Worthing, is a good comic counterpart. Beverley Dunn makes a swift but memorable appearance as the governess, Miss Prism.

This production will succeed because it moves swiftly and makes us laugh. It could, however, do with some loosening of the bolts.

By Kate Herbert