“The Importance of Being Earnest” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Oscar Wilde’s zinger-filled conversations remain the brilliant heart of the play. The back-and-forth dialogues are outrageous yet engaging. His outlandish set up has each main male character, John/Earnest (Julian Remulla) and Algernon/Bunbury (Hao Feng), create a fictional alter ego that lets him escape from the normal routine and either go to play in the city (John) or in the country (Algernon). The double identities, high social class snobbisms, and verbal quickness are perfect for entertaining us with the struggle of the young men to woo two equally socially ensnared young women.

Even the potentially distracting way-too-absurd early moments in this production somehow help us explore the environment that we are about to live in. Lane the butler (Rex Young) primly picks up women’s underwear and other detritus while the conversation between him and Algenon puts us in the mood to watch what’s coming. Young gives just the right amount of efficiency coupled with disbelief at his young master’s behavior so that you feel these are real people whose stories you’re going to enjoy watching.

And we do enjoy the young couples, older couple, and older foils!

Gwendolen (Kiki deLohr) is spectacular when she takes off on a mannered diatribe and when playing intensely with Jack. Even when she’s repeating outlandish lines about supposed correct behavior she and Jack exchange looks that let you believe that they really do care about each other. It is not just about Wilde’s wicked words.

The same sense of a collaborating couple is present in the dialogue between Algenon and his sudden love object Cecily (we saw understudy Uma Paranjpe).

Most productions get away with just running the outlandish lines, but OSF added a pause or two that made me feel like there really was a story going on.

Of course having a world class Lady Bracknell (Linda Alper) adds to the fun as her eyebrows and attitude spike repeatedly! It’s got to be hard to give Bracknell any feel of a real character, but Alper lets her be stereotypically snotty while coming down just enough to perhaps be a person. A great balance.

Miss Prism (Lisa Tejero) and Rev. Canon Chasuble (David Kelly) are also relatively minor characters who are nevertheless outstanding in this Earnest. They fit in and fill in the story. We root for them and are glad they get along!

The Importance of Being Earnest is ultimately a brilliantly written piece poking fun at upper class society. But, because this version is so well done, you can do more than just laugh at the outrageousness going on in front of you. You can consider what crazy societal standards are we doing today? What parts of the play resonate today? Does Wilde’s narrative help us reconsider some of the things we take for granted today?

The foreign setting also helps take you out of the feeling of seeing a play you’ve seen before. The straight-forward set, the beautiful, perfect costumes… everything gets out of the way so you can appreciate the language… and the people.