For most of the 20th century, “The Importance of Being Earnest” was so incredibly popular that it was basically what people thought of when they thought of a play.
When this loony comedy of manners premiered in 1895, it was the biggest success yet for the playwright, short story writer, poet and wit Oscar Wilde. Even when opening night became the beginning of the scandal that led to him being jailed and ostracized, “The Importance of Being Earnest” was so hot that the producers just took Wilde’s name off the posters and it ran for three months.
After his death, the play was swiftly revived and just as quickly became a classic. While barely messing with it, the Westport Country Playhouse is giving “The Importance of Being Earnest” a fresh, colorful, sprightly production that’s up through Nov. 15.
The plot remains chaotically simple. A man known as Jack to his city friends has a full other life in the country under the name Earnest. His friend Algernon enjoys going off on country adventures, too, under the name Bunbury. Both of them fall in love, which complicates their hidden identities and causes some friction among those they’ve deceived or confused.
Besides Jack and Algy, the cast includes Jack’s near-betrothed Gwendolyn, his ward (and Algy’s love interest) Cecily, Gwendolyn’s austere tradition-bound mother Lady Bracknell, a governess/romance novelist named Miss Prism, an avuncular parish priest named Rev. Canon Chasuble and a couple of butlers who in this production, as in many others, are played by the same actor.
At its heart, “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a string of finely wrought one-liners. There’s extraordinary variety in Wilde’s jokes: Funny stories, amusing misstatements, the puncturing of pomposity and status and vanity, lots of silly social commentary and the occasional outright absurdity. Some personal favorite lines are when the imperious Lady Bracknell orders Jack to “Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture!” or when sweet Cecily declares “But I don’t like the name Algernon.” And when the governess Miss Prism, when told that her reclaimed handbag has unlocked a nearly 30-year missing person mystery, is focused on the handbag. “I am delighted to have it so unexpectedly restored to me. It has been a great inconvenience being without it all these years.”
From left: Kristen Hahn as Cecily Cardew, Mark Silence as Lane and Katy Tang as Gwendolyn Fairfax in “The Importance of Being Earnest” at Westport Country Playhouse through Nov. 15. (Carol Rosegg)
Every line is expertly crafted to the point where “The Importance of Being Earnest” can work almost as well as a radio play as when fully staged at great expense. (Those gowns and top hats and manor house garden settings don’t come cheap.)
At Westport Country Playhouse, Melissa Rain Anderson is among the many directors over the past 130 years who clearly worry about how wordy and static this play could be. She’s got the cast skittering across the stage, up and down stairs, clasping and clinching and flipping and dashing. It’s all quite stagy but, of course, so is the decidedly non-realistic, farcical, deeply written script.
The fast-paced physical comedy approach works well here. So does a close attention to all the nuances of all those lines. To its immense credit, the direct and cast even find brand new comedy in the play, riffing off words like “nothing.” Both Wilde scholars and those who’ve never seen “The Importance of Being Earnest” will feel in good hands here.
Beyond those wonderful words, this is also a very fine-looking show, a visual feast that makes Victorian London a playground. James J. Fenton’s extraordinary set is a giant model of a late 19th century “paper theater,” a toy which was used to perform plays with cut-out paper dolls. Costume designer Annie J. Le brings out the fun of 1890s fashions. The characters may get stuffy or fastidious at times, but their clothes are snappy and comfortable and help them as they dart about the stage.
Other than breaking for intermission in the middle of the second act, the curtain falling when Jack utters “Good Heavens!” at the surprise appearance of Algernon at Jack’s country manor, this is a remarkably respectful production. There are very few cuts to the script. The company even leaves in a joke about the Liberal Unionist political movement that nobody has understood (or laughed at) since the 1880s.
Westport Country Playhouse has been pointing out that this is the first time this theater has ever done the comedy. That’s not as big an oversight as it seems, since the theater specialized in doing new and contemporary works for most of its history and didn’t get around to doing a full Shakespeare play until 2017. In 1979, the playhouse hosted Vincent Price’s one-man show about Wilde, which began with same lines that open “The Importance of Being Earnest”: I don’t play (the piano) accurately — anyone can play accurately — but I play with wonderful expression.”
Both these characters assume the title role in “The Importance of Being Earnest”: Michael Raver as Jack Worthing (left) and Anthony Michael Martinez as Algernon Moncrieff. (Carol Rosegg)
Westport Country Playhouse now joins the large club of Connecticut regional theaters that have done the play. Hartford Stage has done it twice, in 1966 and 1989. The second time had Mark Lamos as Jack and Mary-Louise Parker as Cecily. Yale Repertory Theatre did it in 1986 with Tammy Grimes as Lady Bracknell. Playhouse on Park did it in 2015. UConn’s Connecticut Repertory Theatre did it in 2017 in a manner that was as least as frisky as this one, and a national tour directed by Peter Hall featuring Connecticut resident Lynn Redgrave as Bracknell was at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven in 2006.
The playhouse cast nails the characters without deviating from the usual template. Christine Pedi blusters mightily as Lady Bracknell. Jan Neuberger has a delightfully odd voice as Miss Prism. Triney Sandoval is incessantly jovial as Canon Chasuble. Anthony Michael Martinez (strikingly differently from the anxious newlywed he played on the playhouse stage last year in “Native Gardens”) spars playfully with everyone while looking fabulous in robes and vests.
Katy Tang at Gwendolyn Fairfax (all haughty and wily) and Kristen Hahn as Cecily Cardew (slyly innocent, with a voice that sounds like Little Nell in the Dudley Do-Right cartoons) are nicely matched as the women who catch the attention of the two men. Gwendolyn and Cecily have crucial scenes together in which they try to one-up and undermine each other, and it’s a fair and funny fight.
Some Connecticut theatergoers will recognize Michael Raver as Jack Worthing because he played the same role at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford 10 years ago. Raver’s other big local credit is Brick in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at Music Theatre of Connecticut in 2012. He’s got a great look for Jack: Dark eyes, intense eyebrows and a smirk that evokes both frivolity and scheming.
The only weak link in the cast is Mark Silence as the city butler Merriman and the country butler Lane. Silence’s delivery goes beyond dry to the point where some funny exchanges between him and Algernon fall flat. At least he’s firmly in character as an unflappable servant.
There is little that is new that is worth bringing to any production of “The Importance of Being Earnest.” What you must look for is how steady and well-delivered and good-looking the surefire laughs in this supremely well-crafted play are. This production hits all the right notes, not just accurately but with wonderful expression.
“The Importance of Being Earnest” runs through Nov. 15 at Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. $50-$90. westportplayhouse.org.