This Black Swan production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is the best version of the play your reviewer has ever seen. Its great advantage was that the cast hung together extremely well. Stuart Halusz and Scott Sheridan as Jack and Algernon respectively, bounced off each other like any pair of larrikin mates, but with an aristocratic overlay of education, sophistication, and the kind of ennui that only a workless, moneyed existence provides. They brought out, right from the first scene, that far from being a play ‘without serious intent’, as its author said, it is a commentary on double standards and hypocrisy. Wilde himself was a well-practised ‘Bunburyist’ hiding his homosexual affairs from society. Sadly, while Earnest was in its opening season, Wilde was found out, disgraced, and sent to jail, and he never dared live in England again.
Rebecca Davis as Gwendolen and Adriane Duff as Cecily made a fine pair of contrasting young ladies – one being quite worldly-wise and the other a somewhat naïve schoolgirl – but each determined to have her own way.
In the minor roles, Pete Rowsthorn as Doctor Chasuble and Pauline Whyman as Miss Prism made a lovely couple, cleverly bringing out the pathos as well as the humour inherent in these two lonely people.
Michael Loney skilfully gave us two distinct characters in his portrayals of the two servants – a seen-it-all-bugger-the-aristocracy Lane, and a worrying, eager-to-please Merriman.
But of course any production of this play depends on casting a really good Lady Bracknell, and in Jenny Davis, director Kate Cherry hit the mark dead centre. It is all too easy to send this character up, or to underplay her, but Davis found a balance that worked perfectly.
Alicia Clements’s delicious flower-laden sets were admirably complemented by Lynn Ferguson’s delightful costumes, Trent Suidgeest’s subtle lighting and Ash Gibson Greig’s playful music. Their work, combined with that of the actors, combined to provide a credible, cohesive representation of genteel life in the late 19th century.
The entire cast, by the way, is to be commended on mastering the accent of the period. This was the way the aristocracy spoke when I was child (now they all seem to speak Estuary English) and it’s not easy to sustain the fine nuances such as the final short ‘i’ on, for example, ‘lovely’. Well played, Black Swan!
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Black Swan State Theatre Company presents:
The Importance of Being Earnest
Director: Kate Cherry
Set Designer: Alicia Clements
Costume Designer: Lynn Ferguson
Lighting Designer: Trent Suidgeest
Composer: Ash Gibson Greig
Cast: Adriane Duff, Jenny Davis, Rebecca Davis, Stuart Halusz, Michael Loney, Pete Rowsthorn, Scott Sheridan, Pauline Whyman
Heath Ledger Theatre, Perth
13 – 28 March
