at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The farce at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this season relies on word play instead of physical humor and timing. Still, the company manages to over-act and put on stuffy English accents to keep alive their tradition of doing
b r o a d
comedy.
There’s not much to say about this good production of a clever but well worn play. It was good to see Kevin Kennerly as Algernon in a break from his murderous roles of past years (Booth in Topdog/Underdog and Levee in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom). Costumes are pretty. The acting competent, if unsubtle and mostly uninteresting. The set is lush, the lighting fine, …. yawn.
You’re going to see this play at sometime in your play-going career. If you haven’t seen it yet, OSF’s production is a fine opportunity to punch your Wilde card.
