'The Importance Of Being Earnest' at the Vaudeville Theatre

Last week we went to see the last play in the year-long season of Oscar Wilde plays at the Vaudeville Theatre, 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. This is probably Oscar's best play, far more subtle and funny than his earlier plays and I can quite imagine him keeping a notebook specially for his wittiest lines to save them up for this play. It has all the social commentary and absurdity you expect from Mr Wilde and it's effortlessly funny. So why were there empty seats?

This is the tale of Jack who wants to marry Gwendolen but there's a problem since he's pretending to be called Ernest and his best friend Algie, Gwendolen's cousin, finds out there's something afoot and quizzes him about his life in the country. It turns out that Jack is upright Jack in the country but pretends to be his younger brother, the rake Ernest, in town. And that's where the confusions starts with Algie travelling down to the country to pretend to be Ernest and falls in love with Jack's ward, Cecily, and the story gets more complicated.

Of course, Jack is an orphan who was found in a handbag in Victoria station by a kindly old man who adopted him and left him his wealth. If we know anything about this play it's Dame Edith Evans' rising shout of 'a handbag????''. There's so much more to the play than just that line. There are twists and turns aplenty in this play and the production does them proud. Double identities, put upon servants, the power of money, society, town versus country and the clergy, it's all in there somewhere.

While the play is fab and some of the performances were great, I wasn't all that taken with the cast as a whole or with some of the direction. Sophie Thompson was a joy as Lady Bracknell and I loved her under-playing of the 'a handbag' line (you just know that most of the audience - including me - was expecting the Evans outburst at that point). Everything worked so well when Sophie was in control of what was happening on the stage. Less so when other characters and actors took the lead.

I wasn't terribly keen on the male leads and don't understand why Ernest turned into John Cleese in the 'Ministry of Silly Walks' in the final scenes with his silly and unnecessary jumping, and the young ladies could've done with some real backbone. That might be why there are some empty seats, it's the cast not the play.

Still, it's been a great year for this season and more theatres ought to take the plunge and dedicate a year to productions of a specific playwright. This season has demonstrated how effective this can be and it's been a breath of fresh air in the West End. Well done to Classic Spring and the Vaudeville, I hope to see more in the future!