THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

Middle Ground Theatre Company

at the Mercury Theatre Colchester

22.10.2012

for The Public Reviews

This Middle Ground tour of Oscar's greatest hit has been around for a year or two. Last time, if memory serves, it had Tony Britton in it.

No such legends this time out, but a cast including many names from stage and the small screen, who together gave us a workmanlike, if ultimately uninspired, canter through the lapidary text.

It certainly looks good – the scenery is imposing: a lovely cloth of City of London churches for Act One, a classical garden for Act Two, a country house library, with the same horticultural backdrop, for Act Three. And the frocks were superb – Gwendolen's reticule, Aunt Augusta's formidable hats typical of the care lavished on these Edwardian outfits. And there's a lovely original score from Mat Larkin, featuring the violin of Lynette Webster.

As Miss Fairfax so rightly points out, style not sincerity is the vital thing. And it's not so much the farcical misunderstandings that lie at the heart of this piece, but the polished wit, bons mots and aphorisms. Not everyone is equally skilled at pointing a witty riposte, or indeed at timing the lines to extract every laugh from the willing audience.

It is perhaps a generation thing. Diane Fletcher's elegant Lady Bracknell is a true delight. Her inability to bring herself to pronounce the word "handbag" is a masterstroke, and even a line like "the unfashionable side" is imbued with deep shades of significance. David Gooderson is a game old parson, charmingly pursuing the prim Miss Prism of Sarah Thomas, and we are treated to a double domestic helping of Gerry Hinks, who gives us a suavely lugubrious Lane and a doddery, distracted Merriman.

In the opening scene, Algie [Jim Alexander] and Jack [Tom Butcher], resplendent in spats and moustaches, run through the dialogue at a spanking pace, with some lack of clarity. The objects of their affections, amusing in the garden duologue, sometimes come across more as the "purple of commerce" than the "ranks of the aristocracy" – a question of poise, deportment and subtlety.

On opening night at the Mercury, we hear mostly ripples of laughter, rather than gales. But the audience seems to enjoy this fitfully diverting revival of this most bankable of classic comedies.

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews