Lawrence Batley Theatre and The Dukes’ – online 19 April – 4 May – book via importanceofbeingearnest.com
3***
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
Yasmeen Khan updates Oscar Wilde’s classic play with flair and a cheeky wink, setting the comedy in the world of acting and social media.
Playing with lazy stereotypes, the play is set in “The North” where Jamil (Gurjeet Singh) is struggling to get his acting career started, with very little help from his useless agent Alison (Harriet Thorpe in wonderful form). He develops a flat cap-wearing character and starts a vlog, Earnest North’s Reet Good Guide to the North, and begins to build a modest following as Earnest. Meanwhile, in a posh bit of the North, a rom-com is being filmed starring Algy Moncrief (Tom Dixon) – an actor with a bad reputation. Algy ends up mentoring Jamil, but things are complicated by Jamil’s interest in Gul (Nikki Patel). Gul is the daughter of Ms Begum (Mina Anwar), the owner of the house in which the rom-com is being filmed. Jamil can’t bring himself to tell Gul his real name, as she is convinced that Gul and Earnest will garner many more likes and follows than any other couple name, so Earnest and Gul arrange a date in the most romantic place they know – Nando’s. Ms Begum scuppers these plans, however.
Meanwhile, Algy’s romantic interest in Jamil’s cousin/sister/niece Safina (Zoe Iqbal) – it’s all explained in the play – is reciprocated, and the characters all end up at Jamil’s where true identities and backstories are revealed. Melanie Marshall’s Miss Prism is a gameshow obsessed lifestyle coach instructor, with a secret past who we first see teaching Safina felt pen feng shui, and there are cameos of variable impact from Divina De Campo, Hugh Dennis, Sindhu Vee and Paul Chahidi. The latter three serve to highlight the stereotyping and inherent racism that Jamil faces and the shallowness of public images and give Jamil the impetus to shed his Earnest persona and be true to himself.
Wilde’s basic plot points remain intact, although some are merely given lip service, but Khan has given the story and the characters a modern outlook and there are some laugh out loud moments – notably Ms Begum interrogating Jamil like a quiz show called Who Wants To Be A Suitable Boy? Director Mina Anwar has obviously had lots of fun framing the play in the style of a cheesy sitcom, and the performances fit in with this style perfectly, with great physical comedy, exaggerated reactions and glances to camera. Unfortunately, without an audience lots of jokes miss the mark and it sometimes has the feel of a cast desperately waiting for a laugh from the auditorium – enhanced by a scene with an ecstatic audience near the end. I wondered if they should have gone completely down the sitcom route and included a laughter track, as an audience reaction would energise the production and eliminate awkward silences.
This is an enjoyable show and an interesting update but falls a little flat without an audience.