The Importance of Being Earnest
My thoughts on The Importance of Being Earnest or…eating muffins in the age of surfaces.
This is a different take on Wilde’s play. Gone are the trappings of the late Victorian period. Instead, we are in the “Golden Girls” era and Bob Lavallee’s set is so authentically 1980’s looking that one expects Blanche Devereaux to walk through the door at any moment.
Director Ashley Puckett Gonzales uses this wonderful set and Sarah Mosher’s terrific costumes to make Wilde’s most famous play into a soap opera that is somewhere between “Dynasty” and “Days of Our Lives.” All the soap opera cliches are there. The dramatic pauses, the exaggerated acting, the lighting (nice work, Holli Price), the “mood enhancing” music of the genre (nice work, Emilee Biles) are all used. However, they are used sparingly. Wisely, Gonzales never over does it and her Earnest never becomes a camp fest and Wilde’s language is not changed. Carriages do not become cars. Director Gonzales combines these two worlds masterfully.
The play is populated with silly people in silly situations. Wilde’s clever satirical look at Victorian society and manners is relentlessly funny. The simple plot revolves around Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, two young bachelors who use deception deftly to pursue romance. It is their escapades and their interactions with the other silly people in their world that provide the comical action of the play. And, of course, everything depends on the name Ernest. The Importance of Being Earnest is elevated to classic status by Wilde’s witty dialogue filled with many now famous quotations.
As Jack Worthing, Micah JL Brooks looks and sounds like the essence of a Victorian gentleman. Wilde’s witticisms roll off his tongue like they just popped into his head, and he cuts quite the dashing figure in those 80’s outfits. One can easily imagine him as a leading man in a soap opera. He has a great rapport with Amber Marie Flores who plays his love interest the pretentious Gwendolen Fairfax. Flores’ Gwendolen is strong, willed and flirtatious and has probably all the sex appeal that was allowed in Wilde’s day. Flores has also perfected the “comic glare” that brings many laughs.
Lee George is hilarious as Algernon. Moncrieff, Jack’s close friend. He is much more boyish and pleasure seeking than Jack. He is the life of the party when he wants to be and a well-dressed dandy. George’s “Miami Vice” outfit at the top of Act II just about stops the show. George is so smooth and so skilled in this role. Like Brooks, Wilde’s witty banter seems to come as second nature. He is a “Bunburyist” of the highest order and never less than great fun to watch, especially in his scenes with the wonderful Cheyenne Haynes who plays Cecily Cardew, Algernon’s love at first sight interest. Haynes is so convincing playing the charmingly naive 18-year-old I wanted to check her ID. Haynes is perfection as the romantic dreamer who fills her diary with imagined occurrences. One can see why Algernon has “puppy dog eyes” for her. Haynes and Flores also make dynamite adversaries in the scene where they mistakenly believe they are in love with the same man.
As charming as Jack and Gwendolen and Algernon and Cecily are my favorite couple in the play are Shannon J. McGrann as Miss Prism and Steven Young as Dr. Chausuble. As the prim and proper and learned governess Prism, McGrann is marvelous as we see both her rigid, almost puritanical side give way to girlish flirtatiousness and repressed longing around Chasuble. Steven Young’s Chasuble is a kindly verbose clergyman who often boasts of his “one size fits all” sermon. He has embraced celibacy all these years, but Prism brings out the romantic, poetic side of him. Young is as impressive as McGrann in his transition from the strict adherent to celibacy to an almost teenager in love around Prism. The terrific Young actually seems to blush when his character is in Prism’s presence. McGrann and Young are amazingly appealing as the senior lovebirds. I draw my metaphor from ornithology.
Paul T.Taylor is the “gorgon” Lady Bracknell, mother to Gwendolen. She sees herself as the pinnacle of Victorian respectability. She is demanding and judgmental and a “monster without being a myth.” She is also given some of Wilde’s funniest lines. Lady Bracknell would be the woman you love to hate in an 80’s soap opera and Taylor delivers all the fun the role calls for, but never lets his portrayal become campy. Honestly there were times I forgot he was a man in drag. Taylor rules the stage as Lady Bracknell. He’s the Joan Collins of the show and she just might hunt him down to get his second act dress that looks like “Dynasty” on steroids.
Serving these upper-class crazies is Sarah Comley Caldwell who appears as Lane in town and Merriman in the country. Caldwell’s Lane is basically a straight man who is a trusted enabler to Algernon his employer. Merriman must contend with all sorts of absurd requests and although Merriman cannot let his thoughts on the situation be known, Caldwell’s splendidly expressive face lets us know exactly what Merriman is thinking. It’s a small comic gem of a performance.
Director Ashley Puckett Gonzales brings a new spin and new life to The Importance of Being Earnest. It’s one of the best comedies to come along in a while. You are going to have a great time at Earnest. It’s sensational and. to paraphrase Wilde, “One should always have something sensational to see in Fort Worth.”
