A Utah Theater Review By Jarom Loch
Quaint piano music, English accents, pretty women, and a top hat or two– all of my favorite things, and all in one play! If I were a hedonistic female, Oscar Wilde would be my soulmate. Seriously.
The Importance of Being Earnest, put on by the newer program Spyglass Theater in the Orem Public Library, had all the laughs in all the right places, just as every comedy should have. I found myself caught up in the ingenious character interaction and the ensuing hilarity throughout the story despite the cramped stage and feeble costumes.
The script was written by Oscar Wilde, therefore I might as well try to sum up the plot of Richard II or something else frighteningly complex rather than provide a quality blow-by-blow account of it. I just hope you don’t get lost.
The Importance of Being Earnest opens up with the introduction of a certain Mr. Algernon Moncrieff, the picture of a flamboyant English gentleman who never fails to capture the attention of any audience (or any woman, for that matter), with his wit and sharp one-liners. Following a few exchanges with his butler, Lane, during which we learn that he is expecting his Aunt Augusta for tea, Algernon is interrupted by the entrance of Earnest Worthing, a good friend of his. Earnest, enamoured with Gwendolyn, the daughter of said Aunt Augusta, tells of his plans to propose to the lovely young lady.
Of course, Algernon doesn’t think a match very likely, not when ‘Cecily’ is inscribed on the inside of Earnest’s cigarette case with a special note to ‘Uncle Jack’.
After a few moments of persuading, Earnest reveals that he is actually only half Earnest– he travels to his country estate under the name of Jack, and therefore his ward, the beautiful Cecily, knows him as Uncle Jack rather than Earnest, as he is known in the city.
With me so far?
Algernon, of course, thinks this is all very amusing and announces a secret of his own– he often travels to his countryside house to escape his Aunt Augusta and other bothersome relatives under the pretext of aiding his ‘sick friend’, Bunbury. ‘Bunbury-ing’, as it were, has offered him a new life away from the city.
Here, Jack Worthing lays out his plan to ‘kill’ Earnest off so he can enjoy a full life in the country with his wife-to-be.
The butler announces the arrival of Aunt Augusta, and no sooner has he finished than she has burst into the room, Gwendolyn in tow. Aunt Augusta, boisterous and the epitome of fine English upper crust, is not at all happy with her daughter’s infatuation with aErnest (AKA Jack), but suffers through a conversation with Algernon while the other two flirt in the corner. Algernon tips Jack the wink and guides Augusta out the door to leave the two lovers together.
Jack’s following proposal and acceptance on the pretext of his name being Earnest was excellently done, as my soon-to-be-sore abdominals found out. The chemistry between the pair was close to rivaling that of what I’d already seen between Jack and Algernon. Sarah-Lucy Hill made the perfect Gwendolyn, Casey William Walker a brilliant Jack, and the two together made for a hilarious combination.
Following a dressing-down from Aunt Augusta during which he admits to being found in a handbag as a baby in the cloakroom of Victoria Station, a depressed Jack leaves town for the country unsure of whether things will turn out for he and Gwendolyn to be together.
Algernon Moncrieff, however, has big plans for Act Two. Following a hasty scene change, we found ourselves in the Pride-and-Prejudice backcountry England, looking in on Cecily scribbling away in her diary. Miss Prism, played by Aubrey Warner, made her entrance from the audience, coming up to the stage from the aisle staring at my poor, unprotected back. The shock of hearing her first line from behind me was nearly enough to kill yours truly, but fortunately I survived the incident and recaptured my focus with a few deep breaths and my sister patting my shoulder.
Cecily, portrayed by the charming Mia Gabriel, was a little hard to get into at first but she had me in the following scene with Algernon.
Oh yes, Algernon. Algy has arrived at his good friend Jack Worthing’s estate under the pseudonym of Earnest Worthing, the brother from the city that ‘Uncle Jack’ is always visiting. Cecily, who has wanted to meet the roguish brother of her guardian since ever, welcomes ‘Earnest’ with an open heart– just as he had hoped she would. In less than an hour, Algernon Moncrieff has established himself as Earnest and promised Cecily that he will repent of all of his past nastiness.
Miss Prism, taking a stroll with her not-so-secret admirer Dr. Chasuble (Stephen Geis), the local priest, is quite taken aback to meet ‘Uncle Jack’ himself looking thoroughly downcast with a jar of ashes cradled in his arms.
He regrets to tell them that his brother, Earnest, has died of a chill in Paris. Of course, the couple offer their condolences to the suffering Jack as they take him back to the house. It makes for a slightly awkward situation when, upon returning to the mansion, Jack’s brother ‘Earnest’ is waiting for him in the dining room.
This has always been a moment of The Importance of Being Earnest that really makes me appreciate the genius of Oscar Wilde. I’m telling you, I love this man. I wasn’t disappointed.
Adding to the chaos, Gwendolyn herself drives from London to see her love. As the two gentlemen are indisposed, Cecily is left to entertain her. This is, undoubtedly, the most well-known scene of Wilde’s work. The two women are horrified to discover that in fact both of them are engaged to Earnest Worthing, a fact that births absolutely no love between them at all, and slowly all of Algernon’s sayings about women become absolutely true as they snipe at each other across the tea set.
Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, of course, choose to arrive at exactly the wrong moment– together. Suddenly the jig is up and the game’s afoot as Cecily and her rival are horrified to discover that there is no ‘Earnest’ after all. In fact, one of them is named ‘Algernon’ but goes by ‘Algy’. Gross.
With the females boarded up in the house, the two gentlemen argue over whose fault it was and ultimately end up eating the leftover muffins on the table. After the initial excitement was over, the play lost a lot of energy. It started to feel kind of long, and I actually pulled out my pocket watch to check the time when Aunt Augusta arrived to retrieve her offspring. I could feel that the cast was starting to flag a little bit. The script wasn’t as crisp and a few lines were tripped over, but they pulled it together for a nice finish, with Jack discovering that he was left at the Victoria Station by none other than the dotty Miss Prism herself and that Algernon is his brother.
“I have just realized the vital importance of being Earnest” finished up the play to end a nice production.
Spyglass Theater has a healthy talent pool, and they drew well from it. This is the cast:
- Jordan Kramer (Algernon): Kramer did SUCH a great job with Algy Moncrieff. His flamboyance was natural and fit into the role nicely, his stage presence was quality, and I could understand what he was saying, which was great. He did tend to run over the audience’s laughter, which killed some of his lines, but as I have been in comedies before I can understand that. Sometimes we get all caught up the moment and we don’t think the audience will laugh quite yet. Or as long.
Furthermore, there are side effects of some medicine. cheap viagra pfizer greyandgrey.com Vitamin purchase cheap viagra Supplementation Diet rich in vitamins can help improve the blood circulation. Tadalafil the module exercised in viagra low cost Forzest turn crushed in the third quarter when Sanchez’s pass was intercepted by Lardarius Webb, who ran 73 yards and put the final 34-17 in the scoreboard, since both squads went blank in the last quarter. Just like is a jelly like free viagra sample jelly, Sildenafil jelly solution which is used in the treatment of benign prostatic disease which is completely similar to Androgenic alopecia that as well depends on the body delivering – and trapping – the blood in the area.Effect of the substance in the female intimate partsThe pills of kamagra help women in getting intimate by slight activity in the intimate parts of.
- Casey William Walker (Jack Worthing): Brilliantly done. Walker had great facials and offered a lot of energy that kept the pacing up. His chemistry with Kramer made Jack and Algy the dynamic duo that we all know them to be. There were a few times when he stumbled over the script, and his accent wavered now and then, and he broke the fourth wall once (we didn’t laugh when we should have and he gave us a puppy dog look) but it wasn’t enough to keep his character from offering his full spirit to the play.
- Sarah-lucy Hill (Gwendolyn Bracknell): Hill’s performance of the wistful, ladylike Gwendolyn was splendid. She gave the role all of its spunky attributes with gusto and by the end of the show she had sold me the role. I would have appreciated more from her toward the end, though.
- Mia Gabriel (Cecily): The character of Cecily, a bright-eyed country girl who dreams of her future lover, is one that I personally adore. Gabriel lived up to my expectations and delivered an absolutely charming rendition. Some of her presence, however, was susceptible to being overshadowed by Kramer, but that granted him a masculine sort of dominance.
- Anne Shakespeare (Lady Bracknell, ‘Aunt Augusta’): Reading her last name in the program made me laugh. I am glad she decided to join theater, for to see that name alongside of a business selling toothpaste caps or recycled sweat socks would be downright desecration. Shakespeare’s portrayal of Lady Bracknell was great. Her nearly overbearing presence and overdramatised vocals gave the character a fine persona. I would caution her to be careful with her voice, though, because if one overextends it leaves one no room for fluctuation.
- Aubrey Warner (Miss Prism): Aside from the scare of my life, Warner gave a great show. Miss Prism’s absentmindedness and age reminded me slightly of my own grandmother, actually. If the role is overplayed it annoys me, but Warner didn’t make that mistake. I enjoyed her performance immensely.
- Stephen Geis (Dr. Chasuble): At about six foot five with raging red hair, Geis made for an intense country priest. His voice carried just the right amount of ‘Sinners In the Hands of An Angry God!’ in it whenever his lines strayed onto the topic of his unpublished sermons, and his adopted dialect and posture were very well done. He brought the house down with his shout (Latisha!) before he leapt across the stage and into the arms of his love as the play drew to a close.
- Matthew Christensen (Lane/Merriman): As the butlers of both households, Christensen marked his roles specifically to give each of them particular character. I loved the differentiation between Algernon’s alcohol-sneaking steward and Jack’s disciplined manservant. His presence was a little lacking, however; I could feel that he wasn’t entirely comfortable being on stage some of the time. Given that the audience was about ten feet away and the stage maybe as wide as that, I can understand.
By the end of their show, I felt connected to each of the actors in a sort of bosomy I-think-we’ve-met-before-in-another-life way. I made sure to congratulate all of them on my way out and they were very receptive to me. Talking over it with my sister on the way home, we chatted about the cast (yes, apparently Walker is very attractive…) and agreed that Spyglass Theatre’s The Importance of Being Earnest was, as every farce should be, an enjoyable escapade, or, as Algernon Moncrieff would say, “A delightful Bunbury-ing.”
0 Comments