EDINBURGH 2023: Review: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING . . . EARNEST?, Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance Beyond

Have you ever been sitting in a theatre as an audience member, watching a show, thinking, “I could do better than that!” If you have, The Importance of Being . . . Earnest? might be the show that you have been looking for.

The premise of the show is quite simple; a theatre company is putting on a production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, but when the show’s main character is meant to appear from behind the door, no one appears. After a few minutes of the “director” panicking, an audience member is chosen to go on stage and take on the role. Throughout the show, more cast members are dropping like flies (voice loss, drunkenness, etc.) and it’s up to the audience to save the show. 

At the performance I saw, the audience members who went up on stage seemed a bit confused by the concept of participating. The actors were doing their best, but there were quite a few moments of awkward silence that killed the show’s energy and left me wishing that the acting had been left to the professionals.

Fortunately, the actors themselves are fantastic, particularly Guido Garcia Lueches as Algernon and Trynity Silk as Gwendolen. Garcia Lueches is hilarious, typically being the one to tease the audience members on stage and stare at the audience when things get too crazy. Silk, who has the difficult job of pretending to get drunker and drunker throughout the show, does a wonderful job, giving off the energy of one of those girls you meet in a bar bathroom who boosts your spirits while she’s on the verge of tears.

Ultimately, The Importance of Being . . . Earnest? is a pretty fun show, but it failed to capture my full attention as an audience member. I didn’t want to volunteer as I didn’t know just how involved the audience participation would be, but I wish that had been a bit more interaction with the audience as a whole, especially those sitting towards the back.

The actors are great, and the script is fun, but the show truly depends on its audience, making it a luck of the draw each time you go.

The Importance of Being . . . Earnest? runs in Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance Beyond at 16:40 from 12 to 27 August.

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