Wilde Time: The Importance of Being Earnest at Center Stage

If they had such things as telephone books in the days of Oscar Wilde (Wilde lived til 1900 and the telephone was invented in 1876, so you never know),  thousands might have gladly paid to have heard Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde recite from it. One can only imagine with delight what spin he might have given to the names and addresses he'd read aloud.

It is for this reason that, over 110 years since it was first produced, thousands still gladly pay to watch performances of perhaps Wilde's most renown play, "The Importance of Being Earnest."

The play serves as a paradigm for what is funny, the essence of comedy. For what, afterall, makes us laugh?  "The unexpected," my play companion noted as we discussed the latest production of Wilde's work, now at Center Stage. To that I would add, the ironic, the juxtaposition of opposites played off each other, the timing just right.  Add some mistaken identity a la Shakespeare's comedies and you have the recipe for an evening's delight.

This phenomenon is seen even before the actors take the stage.  Knowing Wilde, one suspects there is double meaning in the play's title, "The Importance of Being Earnest." For there is Earnest in name, and earnest in nature, and both are explored by the characters in this play.

Wilde creates a sort of "bizarro" world where everything is opposite. Young bounder Algernon (Luke Roberston) tells his friend, Jack (Ben Huber), "The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact."  

Center Stage favorite and scene-stealer Laurence O'Dwyer plays Lady Bracknell who notes, "I was obliged to call on dear Lady Harbury. I hadn't been there since her poor husband's death. I never saw a woman so altered; she looks quite 20 years younger." Algernon retorts, "I hear her hair has turned quite gold from grief."

Jack's ward, Cecily (Nicole Lowrance) considers herself engaged to a man she's never met, and Gwendolen (Gretchen Hall) contends that "in matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing."

Mendacity abounds in this play, from bogus tales of missing cucumbers to Algernon's pretend invalid friend, Bunbury, to Jack's invention of his alter city-ego, Ernest.

Both men fall for women who find the name's the thing to "produce vibrations," as only men called Ernest-Jack, never; Algernon, beastly-will do.  

Everyone is well suited to their roles, though my play companion felt the performance somewhat "stagey," and took issue with the costumes which seemed a modern take on 19^th century fashion-puffy sleeves and stiletto heels, top hats and white patent leather shoes. But perhaps that is apropos, as it is director Irene Lewis' intent to give this century-old play a fresh face, right down to the oversize letters spelling EARNEST which serve as the set's walls and halls, nooks and crannies for characters to recline upon.  

Performed in four acts in about two hours, Center Stage's "Earnest" also features Bill Kux and John Rothman in supporting roles as Lane/Merriman and Rev. Canon Chasuble, respectively, each playing their parts with aplomb.

At curtain's fall, the cast received its rightful applause, but then a portrait of Oscar Wilde was slowly lowered upon the stage, the actors raising their hands skyward to acknowledge the playwright. As Einstein is a name that conjures genius, Wilde's is synonymous with wit, and it is clear that the final bows belong to him.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" runs now through Sunday, Nov. 8^th in the Pearlstone Theater at Center Stage, 700 North Calvert Street. Tickets range in price from $10 to $60 and are available online at www.centerstage.org or by calling 410-332-0033.

 

 

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