Kirsty Mackay & Melody Grove. Image by Tim Morozzo.“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” Read more …
Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of manners and mores has delighted audiences since it was first staged in 1895. Ernest loves Gwendolyn. Cecily loves Ernest. What could possibly go wrong? Double lives and double standards abound in this masterpiece of satirical wisdom.
Town and country lives become horribly entangled when Algernon’s love-struck friend Jack escapes to the country as his alter-ego Ernest. Identities are assumed at a rate of knots as each confusion leads inexorably to another. Even monstrous Lady Bracknell has secrets to hide concerning a rather celebrated handbag…
Can it all end happily? Will Algernon’s invalid friend Bunbury throw the metaphorical cat among the exceedingly well-mannered pigeons? Join our crack ensemble cast to find out for yourself the vital importance of being earnest!
It works--it just isn't as sharp as it should be. Fans of Wilde should certainly see it.
A fascinating production, less glib but containing fewer huge laughs as it works in Wilde’s original (unpolished) material.
A gloriously superficial piece of serious fun.
The "new" scenes need that speedy delivery if the whole is not to become bogged down. They aren't as honed for comedy as the rest, but they do add depth to Algie and Jack's characters, as well as a spark of modern relevance by making the play much more condemning of their class and attitudes.
Thomson and his cast arrive at a consistent, cripsly enunciated, style and the laughter follows naturally.
It's a delight to see a youngish ensemble pick up one of the great texts of the dramatic canon and tackle its language not only with skill but with evident pleasure, as if its sheer brilliance, wit and complexity raised a revolutionary two fingers to the dumbed-down, flat-screen inanity of the times in which we live.
An intelligent, good-looking and funny staging.
This ensemble seems tailor-made for Wilde’s fruity farce.
Surprisingly refreshing, upbeat and very, very funny, this revival of The Importance of Being Earnest pays tribute to the transcending nature of Wilde’s work, and the impressive quality of the Lyceum’s recent work.
Romeo and Juliet and The Importance of Being Earnest set for Edinburgh Lyceum
Interview: Kirsty Mackay, actress, The Importance of Being Earnest
New Lyceum production of The Importance of Being Earnest
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Friday October 22, 2010, until Saturday November 20, 2010. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk
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