Chris Pickles - Director
Adrian Lillie - Designer
Georgina King - Assistant Designer

Ian Bass - Miss Prism
John Brenner - Lady Bracknell
Christian Edwards - Algernon Moncrieff
Henry Everett - John Worthing
Clare Fraenkel - Cecily Cardew
Nigel Lister - Rev. Canon Chasuble
Rod Matthew - Lane/Merriman
Kali Peacock - Gwendolyn Fairfax

On a balmy night at the end of a blistering day, I sat in Wadham College's beautiful garden in the evening sunshine a glass of chilled white wine in my hand enjoying what is perhaps the funniest play in the language. Perfection? Not far from it, for here was Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, his classic celebration of the inconsequential, expertly and confidently presented to exploit every comic possibility of the script sometimes in ways that its creator could not have envisaged. My occasional uncontrollable guffaws were matched in the merriment of all those around me, many of whom I judged to have been experiencing the play for the first time.

Perhaps there will be some, in the weeks ahead, who will resent the company's tampering with this well-loved piece. Myself, I can only applaud director Chris Pickles's far-from-reverential approach, which has overlaid the whole entertainment with a not inappropriate layer of campery. The style is set from the outset in the louche portrait of Algernon Moncrieff from Christian Edwards. Here, we feel, is a chap who, at the very least, swings both ways for all the pretence he makes of an interest in female pulchritude. The "Bunburying", of which he speaks with such lip-smacking relish, is clearly something quite different from most people's idea of a suitable country pursuit. Neatly suggested in their (well-managed) horseplay is the close rapport he has with the stolid John Worthing (Henry Everett); the amorous history there seems pretty obvious. Next on the scene comes Algy's aunt, Lady Bracknell, who puts us more in mind of Charley's Aunt soon to be seen at the Oxford Playhouse because she is played by a man. Hardly unprecedented, the device once again works admirably since Lady B. is ever a sexless comic grotesque. Here John Brenner excels as the stage dragon, with an explosive coughing fit that provides a welcome alternative to the shrieking incredulity supplied from Edith Evans onwards to the celebrated "A handbag!" line.

More surprising indeed, a first for me, I think is the sight of another man as Miss Prism. Perhaps the casting of Ian Bass is made necessary by the fact that the eight-person ensemble is also offering a fine production of The Taming of the Shrew, requiring rather more men, at the same venue. But it works very well in a raunchy take on the part that certainly puts the wind up that "permanent public temptation" to women, the unmarried Canon Chasuble (Nigel Lister). He, incidentally in a rare slip in what is otherwise a beautifully costumed production is missing the socks that a fusspot such as he would surely wear with sandals.

Felicitous touches in this night of non-stop pleasure include Rod Matthew in the traditionally doubled roles of the servants Lane and the much-put-upon Merriman. I also rejoiced in the spirited 'argument scene' between the plucky good-sort Cecily Cardew (Clare Fraenkel) and a Gwendolyn Fairfax (Kali Peacock) who is so clearly destined to take after her terrifying mother, Lady Bracknell, that you wonder Jack doesn't feel safer sticking with Algy . . .

Christoper Gray, The Oxford Times

Widely considered to be one of the funniest plays written in the English language, Oxford Shakespeare Company squeezes every last drop of wit out of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in this performance at the atmospheric Wadham College Gardens. The setting is polite Victorian society where one needs to assume the correct persona in public regardless of who one is in private. The leading of a double life has comical consequences for two friends Jack and Algernon as they woo their sweethearts, Gwendolyn and Cecily. The ladies have been given the impression that their suitors share the same christian name, Ernest, a name both ladies find immensely fashionable. However, the formidable Lady Bracknell is loathe to let her daughter Gwendolyn marry her beau (aka Mr John Worthing played by the distinguished Henry Everett), a man with no parents, just a hand-bag! Lady Bracknell delivers the crux and funniest line of the play like a cannon, 'To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.' If a happy ending is to be reached then it is only as a result of the characters enduring the many twists and turns that accompany pretence. Whilst the sparkling exchanges fizz like 'eight bottles of champagne', the play's inspiration stems from a darker place, namely Wilde's painful experience of struggling with his own identity in a suppressed society.

The open-air theatre, a genre OSC continues to make its own, brings an added dimension to the text thanks to Chris Pickles' insightful direction. Staging the show 'in the round' is a device used imaginatively by this highly talented professional ensemble, as they stay in character both on and off stage. This leads to a delicious frisson as the audience encounters Cecily (Clare Fraenkel), as fragrant and uplifting as the roses she waters, on her way to lessons. A sincere Rev. Canon Chasuble (Nigel Lister) is seen deep in reverential thought from a distance long before his ardent admirer, Miss Prism, gets her claws into him. Before making a decadent entrance, a mesmerising Algernon (Christian Edwards) takes great delight in a cigarette. This quintessential Oxford Summer play is given two short intervals to allow the audience to enjoy refreshments in the beautiful surroundings.

The stylish use of cushions on a minimal set takes us cleverly from Algernon's Half-Moon Street flat in Mayfair, to Jack's Hertfordshire country house garden. Each residence has its own manservant or butler (Rod Matthew) whose cultivated voice makes the audience feel part of this High Society. So engaging are the characters, one almost expects a well-measured Gwendolyn (Kali Peacock) to pass along the bread and butter to the audience. An inescapable benchmark of any production of this play is the reading of Lady Bracknell, with distinguished portrayals being united by their diverse styles of delivery. John Brenner certainly gives us a Gorgon to be reckoned with! This innovative casting along with a passionate Miss Prism (Ian Bass) adds force to a much relished battle when Lady Bracknell squares up to Miss Prism over the matter of a lost baby. So, what will bring you up to Wadham Gardens, this reviewer wonders? 'Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?' for this hilarious, intelligent and elegant production is, 'As right as a trivet!'

Daily Info, Lita Doolan

The Importance of Being Earnest opened at the St. James’s Theatre on the fourteenth of February 1895. Even the chaos in the streets of London caused by a terrible snowstorm could not deter a huge crowd of onlookers, “Wilde fanatics” as they were known, from gathering outside the theatre to watch the famous and infamous arrive. Inside the theatre, the audience of well wishers commanded to wear buttonholes and sprays of lily of the valley for the occasion would have seen Oscar, ‘beaming with euphoria’ in his box, sporting a green carnation in his buttonhole set against his black coat decorated with a colourful sash reminiscent of the Prince Regent.

Asked if the play would be a success he replied, “The play is a success. The only question is whether the fi rst night’s audience will be one.” Later that evening when both the play and the audience had turned out to be a stupendous success, he congratulated George Alexander the producer and actor playing Jack with the words, “Charming, quite charming. And do you know, from time to time I was reminded of a play I once wrote myself called The Importance of Being Earnest.” A typically Wildeian response.

Not only the audience, but the critics also raved. “An artist in sheer nonsense” said A.B. Walkley. And, on the surface, that is exactly what the play is – nonsense. Beautiful, witty, outrageously funny, surreal nonsense. Apparently Earnest seems not to have a moral philosophy at its heart, unlike Oscar’s previous society comedies, not dealing with the more serous themes of adultery, corruption and illegitimacy.

However it does have a philosophy. Wilde, in an interview in The St James’s Gazette stressed that the play’s philosophy was “that we should treat all the trivial things in life seriously, and all the serious things in life with sincere and studied triviality.” In this brilliant comedy of manners and errors, the characters are resolutely sincere and earnest in their approach to the life’s superfi cialities, whilst being lightly dismissive of its dark and crushing vagaries. A philosophy preached and practiced to its extreme by Oscar himself.

Running in tandem with this philosophy is a theme that connects the play to The Taming of the Shrew, the idea that Wilde is exploring the nature of pretence and superfi ciality. Oscar’s characters in the play can function in a repressive society only by assuming the personas, characters and identities of people with philosophies and morals other than their own, as Wilde himself had done for years. It doesn’t matter whom you really are in private, as long as you live on the fashionable side of the street, or that your name is Earnest, or that you have the required amount of parents, or the appropriate music at your soiree. All girls should keep a diary; it is not necessary that it contain what is truthful or heartfelt.

Chris Pickles 2006