With Wildean Style

To see Wilde’s masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, is a treat in itself.

It is one of those brilliant plays, full of wit, sparkle and marvellously quotable one-liners – that you realise you actually know rather well, even though you thought you did not. In this way Wilde has entered the collective psyche.

But to see The Importance of Being Earnest done classily, wittily, with robust humour and yes, with Wildean style – is a treat that perhaps the Rose in Kingston can deliver with total confidence. Its production stars Jane Asher as Lady B. Far from being overshadowed and overcast by the ghost of Dame Edith Evans, Jane makes the role her own, a new and younger Lady Bracknell whose activities to seek out the best (read richest) husband for her daughter are comic ally comprehensible rather than malevolent.  Jane’s delivery of the famous ‘A HANDBAG???’ line, awaited with anticipation by the audience, is delivered with genuine puzzlement and gets its own laugh in its own right, just as Wilde intended.

I totally loved the handsome Daniel Brocklebank (playing Jack Worthing) – he is a perfect counterpoint to the wonderfully camp Bruce Mackinnon (Algernon) whose childish and childlike enjoyment of mischief for its own sake reminded me of The Cat in the Hat. But the perfect duet is formed by the skills of Jenny Rainsford (incredibly in her first professional theatre role as Cecily) and Gwendolen (Kirsty Besterman) – the relationshiop is clever and funny and captures the fierce determination of each girl to catch her man, but in the most genteel possible manner.

Highly recommended, perfect for all ages and for those who might think that theatre is too difficult/old-fashioned/got better things to do = your teenage children! A paced, pacey and stylish production.

Enjoy until the end of October – it’s a real one-off. www.rosetheatrekingston.org

Sarah Hodgson is a regular at local theatres, and Editor-in-Chief at Time & Leisure Media Group.