If you are going to have your own ‘take’ on something then you need to be very sure that it will be an improvement on the established way of doing whatever that something is. Cupcakes instead of a three-tiered iced monstrosity at a wedding are a good example of a successful take. Three tiers of cheese are even better but I digress.
Irina Brown’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Open Air Theatre is set in a split level surreal, white world of distorting mirrors and plastic flowers through which musicians wonder from time to time. The overall effect is of dislocation and uncertainty and it doesn’t quite work. I am not suggesting that a drawing room is de rigeur for Oscar Wilde’s much loved play but Earnest is as much a social commentary as a comedy of manners and, without the society, the comedy suffers to boot.
The acting is patchy and the pace stately to say the least. Lucy Owen is delightful as Cecily, perfectly capturing the archness and innocence that combine to make up the character and Ryan Kiggell is a convincing blustering Jack but Susan Woolridge’s inexplicable decision to make ‘A Handbag!’ throwaway and instead lay excruciating emphasis on all the rest of Lady Bracknell’s lines can only be described as unfortunate.
The interval comes after 46 minutes at the end of Act I, meaning that the second ‘half’ lasts for an hour and 25 minutes. It would surely be better to have two shorter breaks for scene changes. This is certainly what Wilde envisaged and his contemporaries would not have been shivering and shuffling on the Open Air Theatre’s purgatorial damp chairs.
It is impossible to make a hash of this play, the script is too well crafted and the audience’s goodwill guaranteed before a line is spoken, but when it ain’t broke…
