The Importance of Being Earnest, Royal Exchange Manchester, Review
Posted 2024-06-22 by
David Keyworth
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Fri 14 Jun 2024 - Sat 20 Jul 2024
Like most seasoned theatregoers (and cinema, TV watchers for that matter), I am well-acquainted with Oscar Wilde’s Trivial Comedy for Serious People, so I wondered why I was so looking forward to seeing it again so much.
Partly it must be the anticipation of seeing different actors deliver the play’s greatest hits. Lady Bracknell’s (Abigail Cruttenden) interrogation of Jack (Robin Morrissey), who has just become engaged to her daughter, Gwendolen (Phoebe Pryce), is one of theatre’s sublime set pieces.
In contrast to the imperious rage of Lady Bracknell, her nephew, the over-educated, Algernon (Parth Thakerar), expresses his sense of entitlement with louche bon mots, scattered around him like cigarette ash.
His verbal - and muffin - battles with Jack were an undoubted highlight. Wilde serves up glittering dialogue to the actors but they don’t miss a shot, like elite tennis players zinging the ball between them, in a match-point rally.
Robin Morrissey’s wonderfully plummy and contorted pronunciation reminded me of Hugh Skinner's marvellous caricature of Prince William in The Windsors (Channel 4).
This Royal Exchange production, directed by Josh Roche, opted for modern dress. In one sense, this was unnecessary as the text doesn’t need any gimmicks but it was a reminder that the social elite Wilde affectionately satirised have changed their style of dress but not their exclusivity, or even the specific parts of London and the countryside, where they reside.
The way that the characters burnished their phones at every significant moment and the references to social profiles, also made it seem like Wilde had foreseen the social media craze.
Rumi Sutton, with sunglasses in her hair and green flip-flops on her feet, had a splendid time portraying Cecily as a would-be influencer/Instagram star.
Her scandalous diary was something she dictated into her phone and as soon as Algernon proposed, she photographed her jewelled finger for online consumption.
Given that the characters, in this production, had the internet at their fingertips, I did wonder if they couldn't have found out more about each other and their own histories, in advance of real-life meetings. That niggle aside, there was one moment at the end of the play where their collective Google scrolling fitted perfectly.
The Importance of Being Earnest marked the peak of Wilde’s acclaim, with its unveiling, at St James Theatre, on 14 February 1895, where the playwright sported a green carnation, as part of his attire. By April, Wilde was at the Old Bailey, fighting a doomed libel case which would soon backfire and send him on a path to Reading Jail, and a life of exile.
His affair fell foul not just of Bosie’s father, the Marquess of Queensberry but also recent legislation. The 1885 Criminal Amendment Act imposed a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment with hard labour, for any man found ‘guilty’ of homosexual acts.
St James's Theatre, London in the 1890s. The Importance of Being Earnest was Wilde's fourth West End hit in three years By uncredited - Theatres Trust, PD-US, Wikipedia.
It is poignant, through the lens of hindsight, to hear references in the play, including ones to death and burial in Paris, which would become all too true for Wilde. It is hard as well not to hear echoes of Wilde’s fatal attraction to Bosie in Cecily’s infatuation with Algernon (her impetuous boy).
Perhaps Wilde’s satire of concealed identities was his preemptive strike against the establishment - all style not sincerity - who would soon allow him to be punished for his own affections and double life.
But it would surely be a comfort to him to know that audiences, such as the one at the Royal Exchange, still revel in his great play, while the legislation which condemned Wilde has, at least in the country where he lived, been swiped to the deleted file of history.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Courtesy of the Royal Exchange and FEAST
For more information, including tickets click here
On Monday 15 July, the Royal Exchange will welcome young people to #beearnest
If you’re a young person between ages 14-25, then you are invited to our pre-show event! Music, activities, drinks and nibbles, all before going to watch The Importance of Being Earnest!
Some free tickets are available. For more information click here .
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Josh Roche
Approx 2hrs 20mins, including a 20-minute interval
14 June - 20 July
The Theatre, Royal Exchange Theatre, St Ann's Square, Manchester M2 7DH
0161 833 9833
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#theatre_shows
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288366 - 2024-06-15 17:25:01
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