I was unable to obtain any information or a cast list prior to this show, so apologies to the young American actors who have a brave stab at Wildes classic, thought by many to be the funniest play in the English language.
The writers great achievement in creating this tale of confusion caused by the lies of two idle, rich young men, is that decent society applauded it for its witty and sophisticated take on the absurd mores and values of the time without realising it was a brilliantly coded exploration of the double life gay men lived in Victorian England (Ernest was a popular euphemism for gay). Algernon Moncrieff loves nothing more than to Bunbury, his word for lying about where he is and what hes up to so he can pursue private pleasure. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it, he declares.
These are High School students, so its hardly surprising that they dont get all the finer nuances of the text. They do, however, make a pretty good attempt at bringing these English archetypes to life, especially the actresses playing Cicely and Gwendoline, the young women who are determined only to marry men called Earnest, causing their suitors Algernon and Jack Worthing to come clean about their double lives, but only after much confusion and farcical action.
The costumes are amazing, and the English accents far more convincing than those employed by British characters in Friends and Frazier! Its a shame more care wasnt taken by the directors or teachers in teaching their young charges how to perform this stuff. They need to slow down, and not move distractingly in the middle of one of Wildes perfectly phrased lines. It destroys the timing. Certainly one of the actresses should have been told that the word origins is not pronounced oregans and all the actors informed that the man who eventually christens the young men Earnest and marries them to the young ladies is not called Canon Charsible.
Its a brave attempt, but there were very few laugh outloud moments in the trimmed down hour and a half version. Maybe its not such a funny script after all...
