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The Importance Of Being Ernest
A review by Samuel John for EXTRA! EXTRA!
In this glorious al fresco Regency Theatre, there are more current social parallels with Oscar Wilde’s Victorian farce of manners than is immediately apparent. Unlike Shakespeare, Wilde is unable to be performed in a modern context plausibly, yet the trivialities of the late 19th Century upper classes transcend cultural and historical boundaries. The amusement to be had from the immaculately honed, preposterous characters is relentless, as are the metaphors and philosophies. The dialogue from one of the wittiest plays of all time is hard to get wrong, yet here it is given a new lease of life, even catching the veteran audience off guard. It is both highly familiar yet deliciously fresh. It’s hard to believe that a play that was written over a hundred years ago has produced so many quotes and references that remain in colloquial circulation. The Matriarch who dictates social order with an iron fist is a familiar archetype whatever your background. Having previously seen Maggie Smith’s Lady Bracknell in 1993, I doubted whether another performance could equal hers. I needn’t have. Susan Wooldridge gives an entirely original reading, and uses physical power and control to instil fear whenever she is present or imminently so. Whilst at times she lacks the shrieking quality one associates with the most famous lines, her ominous pausing and expressions of disgust are masterful. It is the immense weighting that these ridiculous cartoons give to matters of seeming irrelevance that is executed to such great effect. Within the central young blossoming romances, it is the women who call the shots. Jo Herbert’s Gwendolen is marvellously snooty and cut-throat and Lucy Briggs Owen’s Cecily is so dreamy she almost floats. Both manage their doting men as commodities to be traded and owned. Whilst Cecily has entirely constructed her romance for her diary, Gwendolen regards Worthing almost as an item of fashion. The camp turns from Ryan Kiggel’s Worthing and Dominic Tighe’s Moncrieff suggest it was Irina Brown’s intention for the women to rule the roost. They are the perfect drippy berks, forming a double act that suggests a greater symbiosis with each other than either woman they are courting. For the most part the simple set was used to great effect, however the use of a large mirror to annotate the vanity of the proceedings needs to be re-designed. The mirror reflected the lighting, making it difficult to look directly at the stage for large parts of the first half. The large sweeping walkway and small footbridge served as glorious entrance tools however, and enabled the ladies to totter clumsily to comical effect. There were clever devices such as when Cecily and Gwendolen twig they are engaged to the same man and the world goes into slow motion around them. Whilst it provided a much needed gear shift, it required polishing to achieve the desired clarity of effect. As the play draws to a close, we are reminded of the preceding words; "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means". This delightful interpretation digs for something far deeper than mere whimsy. There was a brief spell of rain but not even a mild thunderstorm could have prevented the luxurious magic of this space, play and company from casting its spell.
Open Air Theatre
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