Review: Cast delivers in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'
The impulse to improve on perfection is an irresistible trait of human nature.
But would the Mona Lisa benefit from touching up with Thomas Kinkade highlights, or did colorizing make "Casablanca" more enjoyable?
Similarly, adapter and director Conall Morrison's decision to add a prologue and epilogue to Oscar Wilde's practically perfect "The Importance of Being Earnest" seems unnecessary.
Morrison bookends the comedy with scenes of the disgraced, exiled and impoverished Wilde imbibing absinthe in a Paris brasserie and re-creating his highly successful comedy in his imagination.
Wilde casts the play's roles — male and female — with the brasserie's beautiful waiters and male customers, reserving the prime role of Lady Bracknell for himself.
Morrison's reason for this is to heighten Wilde's satirical point that we are performers, acting out roles and identities that conform with society's rules.
He should have trusted Wilde's witty, intelligent, scathingly funny dialogue, which makes these hypocrisies and facades abundantly clear on its own.
In addition, the opening brasserie scene is delivered primarily in French, which confounds some audience members. The short epilogue that returns Wilde to the brasserie pops the champagne bubble of comedy the performers had created, and sends the audience home on a down note.
Morrison is a former associate artist with Dublin's Abbey Theatre, where his adaptation had two highly successful productions. He also directed the American premiere of Boublil and Schoenberg's musical "Martin Guerre," and productions for the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and the English National Opera.
He has chosen a talented, thoroughly well-spoken cast that delivers Wilde's abundant wit, humor and insight with precision.
Heading the cast as Wilde, Lady Bracknell and Algernon's butler, Lane, is Alan Stanford, best known to Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre audiences as the director of last season's productions of "Betrayal" and "Celebration" and the 2008 production of "Salome."
He plays Lady Bracknell with the stentorian gusto you would expect from this legendary society matron, while wearing a series of over-the-top costumes and visually striking hats created by costumer Joan O'Clery.
Bracknell is the engine that drives this satiric comedy about two duplicitous young men-about-town who lead double lives and the proper young ladies who are the objects of their affection.
David Whalen and Leo Marks are nicely paired as the suitors, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff.
As the objects of their affection, Matthew Cleaver and Will Reynolds emphasize the loopy, comedic logic of Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax, on occasion making you wonder whether they would be better off in an asylum than a drawing room.
As director, Morrison revs up the action and broad comedy to a fierce and frantic pace, particularly as we sprint toward the final moments and revelations of the play's second half.
Sabine Dargent's scene design seems to merge Art Nouveau and Op Art with a colorful faux-stained-glass window center stage throughout and a tangle of Art Nouveau lamps standing in for flowers in the garden scenes of the second half.
Moments of Wilde's wit and humor abound throughout the two-and-one-half hour performance.
But on the whole, this is a champagne cocktail that would have been better served straight up with no chaser.
Additional Information:
At a glance
'The Importance of Being Earnest'
Produced by: Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre
When: Through Aug. 27 at 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Aug. 23
Admission: $20-$50
Where: Charity Randall Theatre, Stephen Foster Memorial, 4301 Forbes Ave., Oakland
Details: 412-394-3353 or www.picttheatre.com
