Gwendolyn was shocked and offended while drinking tea. This can only lead to the inevitable spit-take, live on-stage. I was in the front row, lucky enough to be positioned directly adjacent to where director James Stover had blocked Christina Pinciotti for her character’s big, comical gasp. You do the math.
Act II. Algernon and Jack are alone in a garden, “You can’t possibly ask me to go without having some dinner. It’s absurd. I never go without my dinner. No one ever does, except vegetarians and people like that.” Now I think this play is trying to roast me.
With a classic comedy of manners like The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, one would expect to see performances at schools and colleges quite regularly. It is part of the core-curriculum of any theatrical education, right next to Sophocles and Shakespeare. The challenge is to perform a version that seems fresh and relevant.
Wilde was able to satirize an entire genre while simultaneously following it beat-by-beat. Stover, a brand-new member of UT’s Department of Theatre and Film, expressed his literacy for theatre and awareness of Wilde’s “wink, wink” approach in a tightly directed version of “Earnest.” UT Center Theatre regular, Nolan Thomaswick and new-face, Bryan Harkins portrayed Jack and Algernon, a.k.a., Ernest and Ernest. Their natural chemistry was classy and hit consistent humorous notes that would make classic Hollywood proud.
Once again, Daniel Thobias and Nathan White created cleaver scenery that changed by rotating turntables at the end of each act. In period pieces, set designers are often intimidated to simply re-create an era. But this play is a comedy. Thobias and White were able to incorporate comedy into every element on stage, from upside-down furniture, to ridiculous portraits on the wall, every element captured the charm of the text. With the cleaver production design and company, this version would be a perfect introduction to Oscar Wilde to anyone unfamiliar with his work.
I must stress, however, the moments in this play that might just make Wilde rotate slightly in his coffin. The characters in this production do not simply recite puns, they act them out as if the audience were too dumb to understand them. Anytime a college tackles a classic, there is an urge to draw a little too much attention to sexual innuendo. Part of what makes Wilde so rewarding to read is the subtlety of his innuendoes. Sex is all over “Earnest,” but you have to look for it. Spelling it out to an audience takes away from the cleverness of its disguise.
The most important part of revisiting a classic play is to bring it to life again. That is the gift of theatre. It’s temporary and only truly lives for a few short hours at a time. Stover’s interpretation of “Earnest” was relevant and full of life. Being spat on by one of the main characters was, if nothing else, interactive. It really stayed with me.
Evan Sennett is a second-year film major and is an IC cartoonist.