OBSERVER: Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde’s wildly arch dialogue, enjoyed by audiences for 130 years, is on fire again in the National Theatre Live’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Director Max Webster imbues the production with a high-camp, pantomime vibe with new dialogue additions, fourth wall breaks and sight gags.
The bare bones of Wilde’s comedy centres on Jack (Hugh Skinner) and Algy (Ncuti Gatwa), two bachelors who create a convenient doppelganger, “Ernest,” allowing them to secretly pursue hedonistic delights.
Complications arise when their love interests, Gwendolen (Ronke Adékoluéjó) and Cecily (Eliza Scanlen), think they are engaged to Ernest.
Wilde’s nudge-nudge-wink-wink romp lampoons Victorian propriety, privilege, masculinity, class, and the emancipation of women, sending it all up.
“You have fallen into the dangerous habit of thinking for yourself, Cecily,” Miss Prism (Amanda Lawrence) admonishes.
Brilliant comic performances abound. Gwendolen squeals, gags and spits her tea when offered to her with sugar lumps, now considered démodé.
Sharon D. Clarke’s Caribbean battle-axe, Lady Bracknell, almost steals the show with her witty, caustic snobberies.
Julian Bleach plays archaic servant Merriman, appearing onstage like a ghost dressed as a refugee from the French Revolution.
Webster leans into the homoerotic, flirty and flamboyant energy underscoring Wilde’s text.
Rae Smith’s set and costumes dazzle.
Gatwa opens the show, twirling onstage in a hot pink ballgown.
Miss Prism’s famous handbag appears as a deus ex machina, lowered by Jack from the gods via a fishing line above the proscenium arch.
In the show’s finale, the cast struts their stuff worthy of a RuPaul runway.
There have been a few terrific recent revivals of Wilde’s play, including the 2020 Ridiculusmus two-hander and the fabulous 2023 Sydney Theatre company’s version.
Webster’s celebration of Wilde’s enduring comedy is another fitting tribute to Wilde’s genius.
In select Australian cinemas from March 27.
Review by Kathryn Keeble