THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. To 10 September.
Oxford
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
by Oscar Wilde
Oxford Playhouse To 10 September 2005
Mon-Thu, Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm
Audio-described 10 Sept 2.30pm
Post-show discussion 7 Sept
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS: 01865 305305
www.oxfordplayhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 August
A lighter directorial hand at times would make this a near-perfect Earnest.Erica Whyman's production, a welcome in-house show from premier touring venue Oxford Playhouse, has a fine cast, with a nice balance between Dominic Rowan's still, dominant Algernon, and Guy Lankester's John, a slighter figure, his face furrowing and figure darting anxiously around.
Or between Sally Phillips' Gwendolen, visiting the country in a dress with its rose patterns trained in good order, and Amanda Hale's Cecily, in a white dress of assertive purity. Hale's girlish directness contrast Phillips' socially-aware movement and ready set expressions, groomed in salons and drawing-rooms.
A splendid coupling too of Christopher Godwin's eagerly naïve beanpole Chasuble with Anna Calder-Marshall's shorter, stockier Prism, fluffed-out in lacy white. Both are excellent, Calder-Marshall outstanding.
A lifetime as a subordinate shows in her nervously unassertive, perpetually worrying manner, expressed with fine comic clarity. Prism's eyes dart towards her beloved Chasuble as she realises a critical remark might be taken as applying to him, while the possibility of any innuendo produces a flurry of concerned facial and vocal ticks.
Maggie Steed belongs to the modern school of vulnerably human rather than indomitably termagant style of Lady Bracknell. Social position is her lynchpin. She grows downright affable with Worthing (the remarks about losing one's parents have a patronising, near affectionate tone, as if said to a young child) until learning of his origins. This Bracknell is an officer-class Prism, aware social disgrace could cast her back to her impoverished origins.
Add Julian Bleach's lugubrious servants, resembling a displaced Dracula more strongly at each appearance and all should be set for a perfect production. Mark Bailey's abstract set is a bit fussy, but gives a sense of the play's world artificial, insubstantial world.
What's needed (apart from an earlier interval) is simply less directorial intrusion. The pace is over-deliberate, with unnecessary insertions, like the young women's self-conscious pose at the third-act's window to show an anger at their lovers which is already loud and clear. And it seems too much to expect any director not to go overboard with business in the women's tea-table scene. A good stripping-down would polish this Importance up fine.
Lane/Merriman: Julian Bleach
Algernon Moncrieff: Dominic Rowan
John Worthing JP: Guy Lankester
Lady Bracknell: Maggie Steed
Hon Gwendolen Fairfax: Sally Phillips
Miss Prism: Anna Calder-Marshall
Cecily Cardew: Amanda Hale
Rev Canon Chasuble DD: Christopher Godwin
Director: Erica Whyman
Designer: Mark Bailey
Lighting: Bruno Poet
Sound/Music: Olly Fox
Movement: Francine Watson-Coleman
Assistant director: Sam Brown
Erica Whyman's production, a welcome in-house show from premier touring venue Oxford Playhouse, has a fine cast, with a nice balance between Dominic Rowan's still, dominant Algernon, and Guy Lankester's John, a slighter figure, his face furrowing and figure darting anxiously around.
Or between Sally Phillips' Gwendolen, visiting the country in a dress with its rose patterns trained in good order, and Amanda Hale's Cecily, in a white dress of assertive purity. Hale's girlish directness contrast Phillips' socially-aware movement and ready set expressions, groomed in salons and drawing-rooms.
A splendid coupling too of Christopher Godwin's eagerly naïve beanpole Chasuble with Anna Calder-Marshall's shorter, stockier Prism, fluffed-out in lacy white. Both are excellent, Calder-Marshall outstanding.
A lifetime as a subordinate shows in her nervously unassertive, perpetually worrying manner, expressed with fine comic clarity. Prism's eyes dart towards her beloved Chasuble as she realises a critical remark might be taken as applying to him, while the possibility of any innuendo produces a flurry of concerned facial and vocal ticks.
Maggie Steed belongs to the modern school of vulnerably human rather than indomitably termagant style of Lady Bracknell. Social position is her lynchpin. She grows downright affable with Worthing (the remarks about losing one's parents have a patronising, near affectionate tone, as if said to a young child) until learning of his origins. This Bracknell is an officer-class Prism, aware social disgrace could cast her back to her impoverished origins.
Add Julian Bleach's lugubrious servants, resembling a displaced Dracula more strongly at each appearance and all should be set for a perfect production. Mark Bailey's abstract set is a bit fussy, but gives a sense of the play's world artificial, insubstantial world.
What's needed (apart from an earlier interval) is simply less directorial intrusion. The pace is over-deliberate, with unnecessary insertions, like the young women's self-conscious pose at the third-act's window to show an anger at their lovers which is already loud and clear. And it seems too much to expect any director not to go overboard with business in the women's tea-table scene. A good stripping-down would polish this Importance up fine.
Lane/Merriman: Julian Bleach
Algernon Moncrieff: Dominic Rowan
John Worthing JP: Guy Lankester
Lady Bracknell: Maggie Steed
Hon Gwendolen Fairfax: Sally Phillips
Miss Prism: Anna Calder-Marshall
Cecily Cardew: Amanda Hale
Rev Canon Chasuble DD: Christopher Godwin
Director: Erica Whyman
Designer: Mark Bailey
Lighting: Bruno Poet
Sound/Music: Olly Fox
Movement: Francine Watson-Coleman
Assistant director: Sam Brown
2005-08-25 15:57:58