Windsor Theatre Royal – until Saturday 16th April 2022
Reviewed by Liberty Noke
4****
The Importance of Being Earnest is perhaps Oscar Wilde’s most well-known play and has been enjoyed by audiences for over 100 years. It is the story of 2 friends who use have invented a friend for themselves to use as an excuse to avoid social obligations. However these lies cause hilarity when they are taken too far.
The staging of this play is that of a radio show. The curtain opened to reveal six microphones at the front of the stage and 8 chairs for the actors to sit on. There was a piano at the back of the stage as well as another microphone and various items for providing the sounds. Martin Carroll first enters he plays Lane but also provides the sound effects for the play. He tests the microphones and takes his seat at the back of the stage before the rest of the actors arrive and take their seats. The play then begins.
The characters Algernon (Timothy Innes) and Jack (Barnaby Tobias) open the play as Algernon returns a cigarette case to Jack whom he knows by the name Ernest. He questions him why the name Jack is engraved in the case and thus is when it is revealed that Jack leads a double life as Jack in the country and Ernest in the town. Algernon reveals that he has also invented a person a friend by the name of Bunbury whom he later tells his aunt, Lady Bracknell (Jenny Seagrove) is unwell so that he doesn’t have to dine with her.
We then meet Gwendolyn (Louisa Lytton) who Jack proposes to however her mother, Lady Bracknell doesn’t approve of Jack. They make light of the serious matter of marriage and this is mirrored when Algernon travels to the country under the guise of Ernest to propose to Jack’s ward Cecily (Ruby Hartley). When Cecily and Gwendolyn meet they are shocked to find that they are both engaged to a man named Earnest and it is funny to see how they quickly change from liking each other to hating each other and how they contradict their own words.
Although the play is a radio play the performers portrayed their characters excellently. Jenny Seagrove’s voice was that perfectly posh and detestable older lady. Timothy Innes and Barnaby Tobias adopted the arrogant stance if confident men but when they were caught in their lies appeared far more timid. Another great part about this being a radio show was seeing Martin Carroll pouring tea and opening boxes to provide the sounds for the show.
I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that the play has a satisfactory ending in which all the chaos is resolved and the plot is tied up neatly. It is no wonder Wilde’s plays are still being performed as The Importance of Being Earnest had a modern audience of all ages laughing out loud.