The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest - photos courtesy of Nottingham Playhouse

If you know Oscar Wilde’s work, you generally know what you’re in for. Particularly when it comes to something like The Importance of Being Earnest. Fun, silly, witty, satirical. Jaded judgement of a society based on false manners and empty opinions is the primary tone of the play, and with a character like Lady Bracknell you can’t really go wrong.

Put on by the cast from the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company and directed by Giles Croft, there were plenty of laughs, all in the right places. The set was simple but effective, giving a sense of both town and country (though the statue centre stage with the prominent male genitalia could have been a bit less centre stage) and worked well to move characters between scenes.

Lady Bracknell, played by Joanna Brookes, was unquestionably the best part of the play. Her stage presence is excellent, her lines perfectly delivered, and her wit in clear attendance. She owns the stage and keeps the audiences attention. Also fantastic was Robert Benfield, playing the role of the butler Lane/Merriman. He delivered his lines like Wilde would have wished—droll and dry.

The Importance of Being Earnest - photos courtesy of Nottingham Playhouse

Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the rest of the cast. Though entertaining, they often spoke so quickly it was hard to keep up, and you had to listen for the next line to understand what was going on. The focus seemed to be more on the comedic, satiric side of the play rather than the sarcastic, somewhat jaded side. This, in turn, made the characters seem even shallower than the work itself requires. If the actors would only slow down and feel the sarcastic sentiment behind much of what they were saying, the audience would be drawn in instead of pushed out.

This is not to say it’s not a good production. It is. It’s fun, and it makes you laugh, and Rokhsaneh Ghawan-Shahidi playing Gwendolen Fairfax is a delight to look at and listen to, as is Anjli Mohindra, playing Cecily Cardew. Go, but go for fun and frivolity, not for a rendition of Wilde’s satirical, heavily nuanced work.

The Importance of Being Earnest is on from Friday 31 August until Saturday 22 September at The Nottingham Playhouse.

Nottingham Playhouse website

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