Review: The importance of being earnest , Civic Theatre

By SUSAN BUDD

It is something of a shock to see a classic work set firmly in the period in which it was written, so accustomed are we to settings ranging time and place.

Christopher Morahan's elegant production of Oscar Wilde's classic "trivial comedy for serious people" is played less extravagantly than one imagines to have been the mode in 1895, but costumes and sets are delightfully heightened versions of contemporary style.

There is little hint of the beliefs of many Wildean scholars that the language of the play encodes homosexual practice.

Men are only a little ambiguously masculine and the women most resolutely female.

So very formally naturalistic is the style that the first scene between Algernon Moncrieff and John Worthing seems stiff and somewhat stilted, their witty sallies failing to draw the laughter they deserve.

Even the entrance of the formidable mother and daughter, Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen Fairfax, fails to break the edgy formality of the scene.

It is only in the second act, as the convolutions of the plot soar to glorious heights, that the production flows into high comedy and the performances sparkle like champagne brut.

Patricia Routledge is the audience favourite, gaining a round of applause on her entrance as Lady Bracknell. She gives a strong performance, but her voice lacks a Wagnerian ring, its volume sacrificed to descend to a lower register.

As John (aka Earnest) Worthing, Alistair Petrie performs with such confident authority as to appear almost as elegant in plus fours as in a frock coat.

He is ably partnered by Essie Davis, whose Gwendolen is as deliciously crisp as the green apple her second act costume recalls.

(I wonder why the antipodean costumes are so much more vibrantly coloured than the soft yallery greens of the English originals?)

Theo Fraser Steele's languidly callow Algernon develops most satisfactorily into more manly mode under the tutelage of Sarah Kants' wide-eyed Cicely.

The smaller roles are all played with elan by Beverley Dunn, Douglas Hedge, Ron Hackett and the only New Zealander of the cast, Jonathan Elsom.