The Importance of Being Earnest
Open Air Theatre, Regents Park, London
This production of Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, opens not with banter between Algy (Dominic Tighe) and his “perfect pessimist” servant Lane (Christopher Beeny), but instead a four-man band approaching from the aisles. They continue on stage with music that would not be out of place on a wedding day in a southern Italian piazza.
Next to come on, again from the aisles, are the entire cast. Forming a semi-circle they eye the surroundings through binoculars. Algy and Lane are not next to each other; nonetheless, Algy exchanges banter with Lane.
The cast then goes off and we have just two characters left: Algy and Lane. Now we are on familiar territory. Algy banters with Lane.
The Importance of Being Earnest poses challenges for any director. It is so well known that it almost demands an unconventional production. There have been all-male productions, all-female productions, productions that emphasise the gay overtones, productions that neutralise the gay overtones, productions that see it as primarily a satire on Victorian double-standards and productions that do not.
Given that this theatre is in the open air and surrounded by trees it seems right to emphasise the pastoral. We are ambling about in Regents Park and – guess what – dreamlike we stumble across Wilde’s most famous work. Hence the music and binoculars.
The set dispenses with the drawing room. Instead there is a large round table in the centre. A mirrored wall hints that this is a play of appearances and deception. There is a long, elevated walkway (a yellow-brick road), which allows extra room for observation.
The first major scene is between Algy and Jack (Ryan Kiggell). Somehow, though, the exchange doesn’t quite grip. It is too genteel. These lines do contain tension, but it never gets onto the stage. They wrestle on the table for possession of John’s lighter, yet the struggle is purely external rather than internal.
Surely Lady Bracknell will ramp it up? But no. Not at all. There are difficulties for an actress. How do you express your surprise when being told that John was found in “a handbag”, or to state that “to lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness” when it has been done so memorably and successfully in the past? I felt Susan Wooldridge was trying too hard to be individual – either in being too fast or elongating the words – when a more conventional performance may have produced the laughs.
Then things change for the better. Gwendolen’s exchange with John grabs the attention. Jo Herbert plays and looks very much like the Victorian daughter. Wilde’s lines are working at last.
Later, Gwendolen is in the garden with Cecily (Lucy Briggs Owen). Again, this works well. It is played in straight Victorian mode, but then they decide to go into slow motion, with a surfeit of servants in attendance. We have the dream – the externals – but at the expense of action. You must work out for yourself why Cecily has to go into a doll’s house later.
Something I noticed in this production is how the popular or three-volume novel is parodied. It’s all there – Dickens is obsessed with lost parentage and all Jack can produce is the aforementioned handbag. Miss Prism, played here by Julie Legrand, is a writer of such novels. But that is something I might have noticed in any production. And that sums up the evening. Yes, it is OK and there are good and informative moments, but Wilde’s play is great and this presentation of it is not.
Richard Woulfe
