The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde.

Old Fire Station until 26th August

The Dionysis Theatre Company offered us here a graphic illustration of the perils of performing two wildly contrasting works in repertory. One got the impression that their performance of Middleton's dark, charged tragedy The Changeling, with which they opened their summer season, must have been extremely involved and emotional. Too emotional, in fact, for the cast seemed unable to shake off their self-inflicted gloom sufficiently by the next evening to perform Wilde's Importance of being Earnest with the light-hearted relish it deserves.
The Importance of Being Earnest is justifiably one of the best loved of English comedies. One of Wilde's last works, it suggests that he was beginning to realise which qualities in his writing were most appreciated by the public. The moralising which dilutes the humour of works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray, and An Ideal Husband is entirely discarded, leaving a play as flippant as it is farcical, full to bursting with the wit for which Wilde was justly famous.
But whle it is undeniably one of the masterpieces of the English stage, it does require at least some basic rules to be observed for it to work satisfactorily. Of crucial importance, for example, is costume. Wilde's characters are nothing if not elegant. Indeed, the superficiality of society is one observation the play-wright seems determined to make, albeit with a characteristic refusal to condemn the trait. It is, however, difficult to appreciate the sententiousness, or even the accuracy, of this comment when faced with the motly collection of ill-fitting frock-coats and battered boots with which the Dionysis Theatre Company arrays itself.
Moreover, to be successful, true farce requires considerable skill in characterisation and dramatic pacing. Wilde does his part, creating first a set of thoroughly ridiculous yet appealingly larger-than-life characters, then a plot which winds itself into knots with wonderful capricousness, and then glossing the whole thing over with some of the wittiest lines in English theatre. Unfortunately Dionysis rather let him down. Their characterisation was for the most part disappointingly weak, two notable exceptions being Delphine Schrank as a wet yet scheming Cecily, and Philip Stane as a charmingly doddery Dr Chasuble. The all-important witticisms were tripped over and occasionally thrown away, and at times the tension of the piece was entirely ruined by inappropriate blocking: the effect of the catty tea-time exchange between Gwendoline and Cecily, for example, relies on their sitting side by side, covering their emotions throughout, rather than springing away from each other as they did.
It would be wrong to conclude that this production is entirely unenjoyable. There were moments of genuinely skilful comic acting; and Wilde's writing is such that one can not help but warm to many of the funny lines in this charming play. But on the whole one was left feeling that the company could have done with an injection of energy and sparkle. Hopefully they will give themselves one by the end of the run - or perhaps even a dose of something stronger to help them get over their Middleton.

Matthew Rogers, 10 / 8 / 00