What a treat - brilliantly acted old favourite in a great setting!
Chis Pickle directs The Importance of Being Earnest in the walled gardens of Wadham College, an idyllic location for Oscar Wilde's iconic play. Idyllic that is, provided the weather cooperates. And, after a day of brilliant sunshine, torrential downpour besieged the city for near an hour before the sold-out opening night. However, English stoicism prevailed, and the performance was soon underway, albeit under a sea of umbrellas. Initially the weather put a bit of a damper on the performance, with the cast (and the audience) taking a little time to warm up. However, the rain tapered off and they perked up - and Wilde's witticisms were soon rolling sardonically off the ensemble's tongues.
Friends Algenon (Nicholas Chambers) and Jack (Benjamin Wells) get themselves into a scrape ('...the only things that are never serious...') when they invent people to cover up their bad behaviour in the Victorian London social scene. Ironically, they both end up telling the women they want to marry that their name is Ernest (a double entendre of course), which inevitably leads to confusion and (comic) misunderstandings. Furthermore, Jack's lineage is under question by his future mother in law, as she ridicules his origins in a handbag found in Victoria Rail Station cloakroom – with the surprising truth of his parentage revealed in the end.
Packed with some of Wilde's most famous quotations, the cast delivers a high energy performance. Wells' Jack dashes about, working his eyebrows and false moustache to great effect, and James Lavender (as Dr. Frederick Chasuble, the village rector) says it all with his wonderfully exaggerated facial expressions and gestures. Their slapstick is balanced by the more sardonic delivery of the other cast members. In a creative and comically brilliant twist, Pickle cast both Miss Prism (Andrew Piper) and Lady Bracknell (Howard Gossington) in drag, which Gossington in particular pitches with perfect subtlety. Alicia Davies as Gwendolyn, Jack's love interest, and Alyssa Noble as Cecily, Algenon's love interest, are equally well cast and catty as they vie for Ernest's hand. Wells does seem a bit young to be cast as Algenon's elder, but this adds to his 'earnest' persona and can be overlooked.
The cast is dressed in elegant period costume, and Gwendolyn's impressive feathered hats deserve a special mention – they have a personality of their own. A simple set and the walled garden and manicured lawns of Wadham College provides an atmosphere of Victorian gentility.
Overall, the Oxford Shakespeare Company, under Pickle's direction, delivers a high quality, high energy and superbly funny version of Wilde's classic satire The Importance of Being Earnest, which is well worth seeing.