The Importance of Being Earnest

It’s easy to get academic over The Importance of Being Earnest. After all, most of its characters and lines are well known, the play itself contains veiled homosexual double-entendres and its triumphant premiere was soon mired by Oscar Wilde’s own legal problems.

On top of that, there exists a little-known four-act version that was unearthed a few decades back, with which some scholars and directors have since flirted.

While it’s easy to get bogged down by all of that baggage, at its heart Earnest is nothing more than a frivolous excuse for being witty simply for wit’s sake. There is a plot involving birthright and marriage, but it’s all really nonsense, and most of the characters exist more as mouthpieces for Wilde’s excellent wordplay rather than three-dimensional, interesting characters.

The success of any production of Earnest lies on how well the wit is treated, and the Lyceum’s current production mostly does the material proud. The cast is right, and the humour mostly works. The set and lighting are adequate and the costumes are quite interesting, though the music adds little.

However, director Mark Thomson has made the decision to adapt the four-act version, and it is here the production falters. This version is more of a curiosity, not dissimilar to the deleted scenes of a film. It has moments, and lines, of interest, but the fact of the matter is that Wilde and original producer George Alexander were correct in trimming the play down. None of the cut material adds great weight to the production. In fact, it does the opposite, turning a play that is usually fast and furious with its wit into one with too many pauses between laughs.

The Lyceum’s production still works - it just isn’t as sharp as it should be. Fans of Wilde should certainly see it, if for no other reason than to see that the importance of Earnest’s success lies in three acts and not four.