The Importance of Being Earnest
SHORTLY before the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895, Oscar Wilde was asked if he thought the play would be a success.
“The play is a success,” he answered. “The only question is whether the first-night audience will be one.”
As radicals and iconoclasts go, Wilde’s courage outshines today’s, and he paid a heavier price for it than most do.
Max Webster’s enchanting production at the National Theatre (I’m still pissed off that ticket prices for this are up to £110) preserves the play’s perfect illusion of innocence, even as it’s fashionable to interpret the text—featuring male characters living double lives.
Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo and Eliza Scanlan are delightfully sexy as Gwendolen and Cecily, while Ncuti Gatwa embodies the right mix of infuriating smugness as Algernon. I thought Hugh Skinner brought wiry earnestness as Jack, and Amanda Lawrence and Richard Cant add both touch and humour as Miss Prism and Canon Chasuble.
Gatwa radiates star quality on stage in hot pink socks, complemented by Sharon D. Clarke’s sharp wit as Lady Bracknell, a role she seems destined to play.
Her face seems to have been designed to express distaste, and her voice booms with hauteur and disdain.
Gatwa’s flamboyant portrayal of Algernon brings high-camp mischief to Wilde’s beloved comedy, (“being Earnest in town and Jack in the country”) highlighting the subversive Victorian queerness.
Julian Bleach’s butler Merriman interrupts country house luncheons with increasingly expanding gongs, while designer Rae Smith creates glamorous interiors that provide a traditional backdrop for the fabulous costumes.
But what stays with you is Clarke’s imperious Lady Bracknell, with an incongruous Caribbean lilt and understated delivery—half-growling “A handbag?”—she allows Wilde’s epigrams to detonate hearty laughter.
And as Gwendolen says, “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.” This interpretation navigates that with memorable panache.
The sense of occasion extends to the curtain call, with a lavish costume parade.
A friend thought it silly. I think that makes it all the more accessible. Granted, the knowing winks, smut and contemporary references do occasionally veer into the annoying.
The joy of writing about theatre lies in capturing the complex amalgamation of images, sound, gesture, and utterances—especially in great physical comedy. It is here in spades.
Wilde described the play as “a delicate bubble of fancy,” but he added, “It has its philosophy.” The key to the 1895 script is to be seriously funny. The slightly amended text even includes a nod to modern queer nightlife with a reference to “Dalston Superstore.”
Still, it is a tremendous play that was ahead of its time on LGBTQ+ issues and, in some ways, is ahead of ours.
The Importance of Being Earnest is at the National Theatre, London, 21 Nov -25 Jan, and in cinemas worldwide from 20 Feb.
