What's In A Name? Go Ask Ernest

The Importance of Being Earnest

By Oscar Wilde

Director, Spiro Veloudos; Scenic Designer, Brynna Bloomfield; Costume Designer, Gail Astrid Buckley; Lighting Designer, Shawn E. Boyle; Production Stage Manager, Nerys Powell; Assistant Stage Manager, Kate Croasdale

CAST (in order of appearance) Algernon Moncrieff, Lewis D. Wheeler; Lane/Reverend Chasuble, Bob Jolly; Jack Worthing, Ed Hoopman; Lady Bracknell, Bobbie Steinbach; Gwendolen Fairfax, Hannah Barth; Miss Prism, Beth Gotha; Cecily Cardew, Jessica Grant; Merriman, Dafydd Rees

Performances through June 7, 2008 at The Lyric Stage Company of Boston

Box Office 617-585-5678 or www.lyricstage.com

In the words of Director Spiro Veloudos, The Importance of Being Earnest is "arguably the greatest comedy ever written" and he has pulled out all the stops to prove his hypothesis in the Lyric Stage's beautiful rendition of this classic. Oscar Wilde is notorious for his witticisms and masterful writing style that please the ear, but the sets and costumes in this staging offer a bountiful feast for the eyes as well.

Commentary on the technical aspects of a show usually appear farther down the column, but Gail Astrid Buckley's designs are worthy of top billing. In the opening scene, Algernon sports an ascot, a pinstripe frock coat over a color-coordinated floral vest, and an oversized fuchsia flower in his lapel. Not to be outdone, Jack appears in a nattily tailored gray three-piece suit with matching spats. Enter Lady Bracknell and daughter Gwendolen in similar floor length steel gray dresses, featuring puffy shoulders and tightly pinched waistlines. They are topped off with wide brimmed hats with large upright feathers, making a statement that these ladies are not to be trifled with! In scene after scene, it is a joy to behold the outfits that parade across the stage, taking notice of the smallest details of eyelets, ruffles, bustles, parasols, and walking sticks, and seeing each character dressed in a manner befitting his or her station and personality.  

In tandem with Buckley's artistry, Scenic Designer Brynna Bloomfield creates a period mood with furnishings, props, and hues. Oriental rugs adorn the floor in Algy's city dwelling, as well as in Jack's country house. Artwork on the walls, a silver tea service, fancy settees, textured wallpaper, and a brocade and tasseled curtain room divider give the impression of the comfort and wealth of the denizens. Even the garden area, while simple with white wicker table and chairs, is lush with dozens of pastel blossoms growing over a brick wall. You can almost smell their fragrance. 

Considering that the play premiered in London in 1895, it remains refreshingly undated and entertaining in its downward glance at the lives of the upper classes. In this comedy of manners, Wilde satirizes the social attitudes of the Victorian era, especially the superficiality and materialism personified in his characters. Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing are young bachelors who pretend to be earnest – and Ernest - in wooing Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax respectively. The ladies share a predilection for a beau with the Christian name of Ernest and, at one point, believe that they are actually sharing the same beau, which leads to a Victorian kind of catfight. To further complicate matters, Cecily is Jack's ward, Gwendolen is Algernon's cousin, and the latter claims to be Jack's non-existent brother Ernest in order to make time with Cecily. As the matriarch of the family, Lady Bracknell oversees all of the madcap mayhem. Despite their foibles and follies, they are a likeable lot.

Veloudos has smartly infused his cast with the Wilde spirit so that, across the board, they are insanely tongue-in-cheek or oh-so-bored droll, as called for. Dafydd Rees plays Merriman the butler with an air of being underwhelmed by the antics of the hoity toity around him. Bob Jolly does comical double duty as Algernon's manservant Lane and the rather neurotic Reverend Chasuble. Beth Gotha is prim and proper as Cecily's governess Miss Prism, but eventually lets her hair down and heats things up with the clergyman. Lewis D. Wheeler and Ed Hoopman have terrific chemistry as the sparring friends who debate the merits of love and marriage. Wheeler goes from devil may care frat boy to smitten suitor, while Hoopman starts out as cocksure lover, reduced to scrambling to prove his pedigree to claim the affections of his fair lady. On the distaff side, Hannah Barth gives as good as she gets when she kowtows to Lady B. as the dutiful daughter and when she receives the admiration and respect of Worthing. Jessica Grant is both sweet and knowing as the younger woman in the throes of first love. It is a wonderful ensemble performance.

While she is an integral member of the ensemble, Bobbie Steinbach deserves her own paragraph. Granted, her character is no shrinking violet, but Steinbach chews the scenery as Lady Bracknell. In addition to the fact that all of her costumes are spectacular, she draws everyone's attention each time she enters the room. Did I say draws? I think commands is the better word as she carries herself regally and often looks askance at those silly young men and women who can't possibly know the proper way to behave unless she tells them what to do. Lady Bracknell is formidable, but Steinbach is also able to let us see her softer core when all matters are resolved in the end.

The playwright's own double life may have served as inspiration for the story of the leading men in The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde was married and the father of two children, but he engaged in homosexual relationships which were against the norms and laws of the time. Even as he was having great success with this play, his legal troubles began and he eventually served two years in prison.  His depiction of the ploy of concealed identities in the lives of Algernon and Jack is light and engaging, ultimately ending happily with liberty and marriage for all. Too bad for Wilde that he didn't live in Massachusetts in the first decade of this millennium. He might have been able to write the same ending for himself.

 

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