Since its inception 10 years ago, independent theatre troupe Bloomshed has produced both new and rehashed plays, including last year’s Animal Farm, which was given an Australian political spin and A Dodgeball Named Desire, which explored sexual attraction and homophobia, and had two actual dodgeball teams competing, with the Blanche DuBois squad fighting it out against the Stanley Kowalskis troop.
The Importance of Being Earnest, a ‘trivial comedy for serious people’ was first performed in 1895 and since then has had countless iterations in film, theatre, radio and television. So what could this anarchic company possibly do with Wilde’s epigrammatic gem? Plenty, in turns out. But its approach is a catch-all muddled one that, in 70 minutes, tries to do too much in the limited time allocated.
Wilde’s play is excised to the bare minimum – which means audiences unfamiliar with it will have to work hard to keep up with all the Earnest key phrases and convoluted plot lines that keen Wildean fans already know by rote, including: “Bunburying”, a handbag left in a cloakroom at Victoria Station, an alliance with a parcel, a monster without being a myth and a disappointing lack of musicality in the name Jack.
Those who’ve somehow managed to have bypassed this play in any of its versions need to go back to the original text to understand how the Bloomshed troupe have chopped and changed and introduced new irreverencies into the already ridiculous plot. A passing knowledge of Wilde’s eventful life also makes this version more meaningful.
The team of four take on multiple roles, cross-dress, gender flip, robe and disrobe on stage. They are an exuberant quartet of performers.
But not content with taking on the play itself, the team also inserts the later elements of Wilde’s life into the show, with the character of the writer stepping in and out in between moments of satirical silliness to reflect on running away from creditors, his former lover Bosie and his estranged children. Though Earnest was first performed to acclaim, Wilde’s subsequent arrest and imprisonment for homosexuality soon saw the play close amid prurient condemnation.
The commingling of light and dark shades does feel a little uneasy, but for a play that trades on hoodwinking others with a dual personality to escape one’s responsibilities, its metaphorical linkage to Wilde as a devoted husband and father in polite society while preying on underaged rent boys in the undercover of night is piquant and unmistakable. Here in starkness, the slipperiness of identities is explored, with the tension of public obligations playing out against a clandestine life of self-regard and decadence.
The set and costumes are mostly decked out in pastels, frills and paisley – except for Lady Bracknell (in drag) who’s granted more deeper, vibrant hues to complement her stentorian personality. She makes a delayed appearance to pique curiosity. À la Wilde’s nemesis – the Marquess of Queensberry who initiated criminal proceedings against him – she has a boxing glove too (and is not afraid to use it). Though Bracknell’s words on opening night lacked the delivery and gravitas needed, this mash-up of two formidable characters is a brilliant innovation, a collision of life and art.
Bloomshed adaptations are mischievous as a rule, and the risqué tone here often devolves into the sexual, with an abundance of cucumbers used as a prop. In the original play, it’s an innocent ingredient in sandwiches proffered to guests, here it’s reconstituted, of course – into a phallic symbol. Bread rolls are treated to the same fate. After all, “all art is masturbatory” is it not?
Cecily, meanwhile, makes her first appearance riding a tiny tricycle, with an oversized hair bow to underline her youth, a point that’s mentioned in the play, but here is taken to extremity by the team.
Though this production is on the whole, fun, energetic and campy, the ending is surprisingly abrupt and anti-climactic, leaving the audience confused as to whether it is actually finished. Should we be waiting for baguette fights in reference to Wilde’s post-prison exodus to France?
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Even so, Earnest works best when Bloomshed allows moments of stillness in between all the half-chewed cucumbers revelry. When, for instance, Constance – Wilde’s wife – appears in the shadows, away from the stage area, in a soft reminder of the playwright’s other, less mythologised life.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
fortyfivedownstairs
Created and performed by Bloomshed (James Jackson, Elizabeth Brennan, Tom Molyneux, Hayley Edwards)
Lighting Designer: John Collopy
Set Designer: Nathan Burmeister
Costume Designer: Samantha Hastings
Stage and Production Manager: Jacinta Anderson
Sound Designer: Justin Gardam
Tickets: $38-$48
The Importance of Being Earnest will be performed until 11 August 2024.
