The Importance of Being Earnest

This review appeared in The Davis Enterprise on 1/24/2007


It’s a world of polite society, cucumber sandwiches, and a world where “smoking” is considered a proper activity for a young man. “A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is.”

It’s a world where “being Earnest” is very important.

In fact, that’s the name of the play, “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, who can skewer high society pomposity better than most. It is currently delighting audiences at the Woodland Opera House.

Jack Lynn, who, in his 70 year career has taught such luminaries as Sir Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman and worked with the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Sir John Gielgud, is making this production his directorial swan song. The veteran director is going out with a bang, not with a whimper.

He has assembled a talented cast, with keen comic timing, and several are new to the Woodland Opera House.

Chris Quant is delicious as the n’er do well Algernon Montcrief whose life seems to consist of partying and heading off into the country for dalliances. For this purpose he has created an imaginary friend named Mr. Bunbury (whom Quant pronounces “Bombury,” for some inexplicable reason), who becomes conveniently ill when Algernon needs to get out of town. The young man is quite pleased with the effectiveness of his deception.

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!”

Algernon’s friend is Earnest Worthing (Jerry Lee) who is absolutely perfect as the young man who is hiding the fact that his name is really Jack Worthing, and as a baby, he was abandoned in a handbag at Victoria Station and adopted by the wealthy Thomas Cardew, who, on his deathbed, made the young man the guardian for his granddaughter, Cecily (Janey Pintar). Jack has invented a wayward brother named Earnest who lives in the city and whose antics force Jack to have to leave the country and come to town.

Earnest (or Jack) is in love with Algernon’s cousin Gwendolyn Fairfax (Katherine C. Miller) whose mother is the formidable Lady Bracknell (Shelly Sandford), who has some of the most memorable lines in the play.

Miller is the perfect spoiled upper crust daughter, who fell in love with Jack because she has always dreamed of marrying someone named “Earnest.”

Sandford is prim and ultra proper as she questions Jack about his qualifications to marry her granddaughter. All seems to meet with her approval until he admits that he has lost both of his parents. “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

Deciding that a handbag is not a proper mother, Lady Bracknell forbids the marriage and, when asked by Jack what he can do to change her mind replies, “I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is quite over.”

The action moves to Jack’s house in the country, where Algernon has traveled in order to meet Jack’s intriguing ward and introduces himself as Jack’s elder brother Earnest. Pintar is cute as Cecily, whose dream has been to meet a truly wicked man and can hardly wait to meet her guardian’s brother.

But wait, there's more. Cecily’s teacher, Miss Prism (Georgann Wallace), is hiding many things, including a love for the rector, Chasuble (Paul Fearn) and a shameful secret which sheds light on Jack’s parentage, after which everyone learns the real importance of being Earnest.

Mark Garbe and Chris Lamb have minor roles as the manservants Merriman and Lane, respectively.

Laurie Everly-Klassen has outdone herself in the elaborate costumes. The women’s hats alone are not to be believed.

Scenic and lighting design are by the reliable Jeff Kean, who can do more with a few flats than most. One never feels a lack of opulence in any of the scenes.

If you have never seen an Oscar Wilde play, this is the one not to miss. From the sparkling dialog to the keen comic timing of this cast, to the visual delight of the sets and costumes, “The Importance of Being Earnest” delights on all levels.

Lady Windermere's Fan

Ghost Light Theatre Festival has opened at the Veterans Memorial Theater with its first of four mainstage productions, Oscar Wilde’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan,” directed by Emily Henderson.

This is a play which centers on the strict morals of Victorian England, when courtesy and manners were valued above personal conflicts. One did not air one’s dirty laundry in public. Into this world comes a situation rife with delicious innuendo and the whole town is talking about it.

Lady Windermere (Alicia Hunt) is about to celebrate her birthday and has received an ornate fan as a gift from her husband . She is visited by the gossipy Duchess of Berwick (Betsy Raymond) and her daughter Lady Agatha (Madelyn Ligtenberg) and told that her husband has been seen calling on a woman of bad reputation, a Mrs Erlynne. The Duchess intimates that Lord Windermere has been giving this woman large sums of money.

Lady Windermere finds her husband’s secret bank book showing substantial payments to Mrs. Erlynne and concludes that the rumor is true and that her husband has been unfaithful. What's more, Lord Windermere (Anthony Pinto) asks her to invite Mrs Erlynne to her birthday gathering. She refuses but her husband sends the invitation anyway and Mrs Erlynne (Maddy Ryen) comes to the party. There is a near confrontation between the two women.

Lady Windermere decides she can no longer live with her husband, and runs away to join an admirer, Lord Darlington (Blake Campbell-Hyde), leaving behind a good bye letter for her husband. The letter is intercepted by Mrs Erlynne, who pursues her and persuades her to return home without Windermere finding out. Unfortunately, Lady Windermere leaves her new fan behind.

Later the men gather at Darlington's place and the fan is found but Mrs Erlynne appears and says that it was she who left the fan, thereby ruining her own reputation by being in a gentleman’s apartment and also ruins her chances of marrying Lord Augustus Lorton (Davis Wurzler). The motive for this act of self sacrifice is revealed to the audience, but not to Lady Windermere, who never does learn that Mrs. Erlynne is the mother she thought died when she was a child.

The cast give generally fine performances, with one or two rising above the level of competent. Maddy Ryen as Mrs. Erlynne does an excellent job. We aren’t sure if she’s a sympathetic character or a blackmailing shrew, but in the end she discovers that she has a heart and has feelings for the daughter she abandoned long ago.

In the minor role of Mr. Cecil Graham, Nick Bettencourt gets the most out of the wit of Oscar Wilde. Wilde was the master of the bon mot and this play is rife with them. (“I can resist anything but temptation,” “It is absurd to divide people into the good and the bad. People are either charming or tedious,” “History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality,” “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes,” etc.) Unfortunately, many of them fall flat, but Bettencourt’s delivery is the most effective.

The scene is one of the strongest in the play, a group of men sitting around smoking, drinking, and discussing life.

Betsy Raymond, in her small role as the Duchess of Berwick is appropriately bitchy, as she revels in her opportunity to be the bearer of bad news to poor Lady Windermere. Madelyn Ligtenberg as her daughter gets the most out of a role where all one has to do is say “yes, Ma-ma.”

Costume design by Randi Famula is outstanding in the gowns for the women, though there were some problems with fit on the men’s costumes, probably because they were evening clothes pulled off the rack. Someone should make certain, however, that the actors wear the appropriate socks. Green socks and white socks do not go well with the evening attire, and when the men sit down and stretch their legs out, the socks are impossible to overlook.

This is a good production, not a great production. Director Henderson has done a good job of moving her cast around the stage and her vision of the play and the era is good. The main problem with it may be that Oscar Wilde needs an older, more seasoned cast to wring all the subtleties out of the script.

Lady Windermere’s Fan continues August 1, 4, and 6 at 8 p.m., and August 2 – the program says 11 p.m., but surely it must mean a.m.