THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. Lip Service tour to 1 December.

Tour

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
by Oscar Wilde

Touring until 1 December 2001
Runs 2 hr 40 min. Two intervals

Review Hazel Brown 8 November 2001 at Poole Arts Centre

Wilde's witty triviality taken to its farcical limits.Taking the combined comic genius of Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding (collectively the theatre company Lip Service), Lawrence Till has turned the trivial world of Algy and Ernest into a topsy-turvy farce. Using the ruse that some of the actors have been arrested, Maggie and Sue step into the breach (or the breeches) to play Algernon Moncrieff and Ernest Worthing. The 'stage manager' is to be Canon Chasuble and a reluctant 'front of house' programme seller (I actually bought my programme from him) is asked to play all the bit parts. Two male actors turn up later, having been released from custody, to take on the roles of Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen Fairfax. Only Miss Prism (Vanessa Rosenthal) is played throughout by one actor.

All this business does not detract one jot from the wit and adds greatly to the hilarity of the whole plot. The 'front of house' actor (Darren Southworth) who has ostensibly been in a local production of The Wizard of Oz, upstages everyone with his costume changes and brings the house down when he appears in 'Dorothy's' red shoes.

Sue Ryding has great fun using exaggerated clipped vowels ('Jack' becomes 'Jek') playing both Ernest (Jack) Worthing and Cecily Cardew and Maggie Fox's huge eyes are put to great comic effect both as Algernon and later as Lady Bracknell. Set in the late fifties, with pop music to suit, the first act is dominated by a huge handbag at the back of the set. When the scene shifts to the country, the bag opens to reveal a grassy hillside dotted with sheep. Quite why Gwendolen and Cecily climb to the top of this – using the sheep as footholds that 'baa' each time they are stepped upon – is not clear, but it is funny. This is the one questionable action in an evening of trivial comedy that has been broadened into hilarious farce.

The Company:
Maggie Fox
John Griffin
Sophie Jerrold
David Kellett
Jamie Newall
Vanessa Rosenthal
Sue Ryding
Darren Southworth
Matthew Vaughan

Director: Lawrence Till
Designer: Richard Foxton
Lighting: Designer Ian Saunders
Composer: Mark Vibrans

2001-11-12 01:02:44