BWW Reviews: Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST At Gamut Classic Theatre

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is one of Oscar Wilde's most popular plays, as well as one of the most-performed of comedies generally, although it got off to a bad start - its opening night in 1895 was the night the Marquess of Queensbury threatened Wilde with prosecution, and Wilde's arrest closed the show, which had been successful to that point - these days, the publicity would just sell more tickets. It's among the funniest of shows, as audiences, armed with more knowledge than the characters on stage, squirm with waiting for the shoe to drop, which it always does, repeatedly, in each act.

A staged reading of it, with some particularly fine costuming, is on stage at Gamut Classic Theatre as part of its Stage Door Series. Directed by Karen Ruch, it features a veteran area cast who bring with them the acting chops to take on some of Wilde's most amusing work. It was said in Wilde's day, in the 1890's, that Wilde was even wittier in person than his writing could be, and so it is with his plays - they can be read, but they need to be heard in order to be appreciated fully.

It's a truth in Wilde's plays that his secondary characters can outshine his leads - some of his plays, such as LADY WINDEMERE'S FAN, with larger casts, become almost entirely about the character parts rather than the leads. And Wilde's grande dame parts are particularly noteworthy. It's therefore that Linde Stern as Lady Bracknell deserves the first mention, because in this production the confluence of actress and stage character is indeed delightful. Stern's Lady Bracknell owns the stage as soon as she blows in like a storm in the first and third acts, without ever wresting the play from its moorings. Equally charming is Tom Weaver's Dr. Chasuble, a vicar whose unitentionally funny lines are brought off to the fullest by one of the area's most versatile actors. Even if you know nothing about Anabaptists, you may snicker at his offhand refutation of non-present heretics.

Among the leads, John Luttermoser shines as Algy, or Algernon Montcrieff, nephew of Lady Bracknell. The character is the official center of amusing bons mots from his appearance on stage and his devouring of the cucumber sandwiches intended for his aunt, in the part that channels Wilde himself. Luttermoser has some nice comic timing, as well as bad-boy charm. John - or Ernest - Worthing, played by Sean Adams, is the man with a double life: he is the serious, dedicated, priggish John in the country, noble guardian of Cecily Carew, who demands that she drill German and political economy into her mind, but he is also Ernest, fun-loving and in love with Gwendolyn, daughter of Lady Bracknell, in the city. He's also absolutely not good enough for any daughter of Lady Bracknell's, and the great woman herself intends to see that he knows it. Adams is amusing as Ernest trying to explain to Algy that he's really John, and funnier when he's Ernest trying to figure out how to tell Gwendolyn, who adores his name, that he's not. He's at his best in the third act, under pressure from Lady Bracknell, trying to determine just who he is in the first place.

Love interest Gwendolyn, Kathryn Miller, and studious Cecily, Alexis Campbell, who becomes Algy's love interest when he shows up in the country as Ernest, are played gamely, but are at their best after their meeting in the third act, when they unite against John and Algy to find out exactly who is engaged to whom, since as far as they know, each of the men is Ernest Worthing. Miller and Campbell become a miracle of united action, immediately after they realize that sisterhood might be very powerful indeed.

Kelli Kauterman as Miss Prism, Cecily's uninspiring tutor, is charmingly funny when she turns her attention to the studious vicar. David Ramon Zayas, in a very nice casting turn, plays all of the servants, and his Lane, Algy's valet, is a model of the too-superior gentleman's gentleman whose employer is almost unworthy of his perfection. In Zayas' hands, the reading scripts become a prop of the worthiest form for his busy characters.

Although Wilde is better-documented than Shakespeare by far, there are multiple versions of the play, especially regarding the moment in the third act when John begins scouring through reference books to find a name. In the original, he picks up one book and locates it; the scene has been improved repeatedly by directors to involve tossing various irrelevant reference books about the room as everyone searches. That this isn't the original version is clear to anyone who knows Victorian English literature - the name of one book that winds up in Lady Bracknell's hands will be ridiculously funny to anyone who knows it when they hear it. (It's a rather... nonliterary... work, even the mention of which would never have passEd English censorial review in 1895.) Ruch says that she found the scene, as done at Gamut, in one production version she read and left it intact. It's a revision that Wilde certainly would have approved, as it's even more amusing than the original moment, and he might wish that he had been able to write that book title into the mix.

At Gamut through January 25. It's a production that would be nice to see as a full play rather than as a reading, although Zayas and Luttermoser integrate their scripts as props to a fine degree. For information and tickets, visit www.gamutplays.org.

Photos courtesy of Gamut Classic Theatre

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