“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest.
Well, say it ain’t so, hon! Because Baltimore Center Stage is closing out its 2023/2024 mainstage season with a wild new adaptation of Wilde’s fanciful comedy— The Importance of Being Earnest— and it’s just a delightful gem, serving as the perfect sparkling cap to the five-show season. Adapted and Directed by Jenny Koons, this world-premiere adaptation moves swiftly through all the comedic nuance that Wilde infused into the play whilst keeping all the earnest points at the forefront of the story. Witty and charming, this adaptation is a good, giggling conclusion to BCS’s mainstage season.
The adaptation is bookended by social commentary; quotes and sections of tomes all about etiquette on every blessed topic, which feels fitted to the time of the piece. (With the exception of the hilarious and exceedingly well received piece of advice wherein the audience is told, “Don’t say darling, say Hon.”) Jenny Koons’ adaptation, while using Wilde’s original wording for the actual scenes of the play, rigorously cured and rendered into less than two hours’ stage traffic, features these ‘snippets of etiquette’ in a way that draws the seven performers of the production together in an ensemble fashion. The top of the second act starts with the Lady Bracknell character extolling and espousing more ‘snippets’ while the other six performers spin slowly around the stage, not unlike music box figurines, or perhaps even gameboard pieces in her grander machination scheme. The way Koons has edited Wilde’s work— primarily for expedience of delivery and maximizing comic impact— allows for the experience to feel fresh and with more of an ensemble nature, rather than being about two young sets of lovers and a few characters filling out the details of the play.
Scenic Designer Jason Ardizzone-West (accompanied by associate scenic designers Emma Antenen and Sean Sanford) create a deceptively simple wall-tower that serves as the show’s only scenery, creating for a vastly open play space, which well-serves the movements of the actors throughout the performance. Ardizzone-West’s two-tier wall construct is painted in muted colors to look like scenery that could earnestly come out of any Oscar Wilde story (and beyond that, something more akin an illustration of a Jane Austen novel.) But the mesmerizing characteristic of Ardizzone-West’s lovely painted wall is the hidden doorways and window-openings, which aren’t fully revealed until the second scene— where the three lower doors are obscured with faux foliage to create the illusion of being out in the garden— and then in the second act, where we have three doors on the lower tier open and the three windows on the upper tier in full occupation of people and…flying books. Complimenting Ardizzone-West’s work is that of Lighting Designer Annmarie Duggan (assistant Joe Borsch) and the sound/music design of Uptownworks (assistant Rebecca Satzberg.) Duggan’s subtle and at times very subdued use of lighting creates just the right atmosphere for romance and comedy and the additional, classical music— particularly for the final, dialogue-less scene— balances the overall nature and verve of the production sublimely. There’s also a rare opportunity to experience said set from on-stage (two smaller seating banks flank the far left and right of the play-space respectively, giving certain ticket-holders the option to be quite close to the action as it unfolds!)
Hugh Hanson and Kathy Mathews, costume and wig designers, respectively, are what help the play to ‘pop’ from a visual standpoint. You get stark white furnishings smattered about on the set, backed by th muted wall painting, but Hanson and Mathews give you lavish outfits— even though some are in shades of gray or gunmetal-chocolate-bronze— that fit the bill for the upper echelons of society that’s being touted in this production. Cecily Cardew’s delightful dress of baby’s breath pink and pale spring green is the perfect fit for her naïve character while the more rigorous shades of magenta-plum frosted with a glimmery sheen feel much more suited for Gwendolen Fairfax. Both Earnest gents appear crisp and well-carried in their respective suits, but it’s Lady Bracknell’s glorious gunmetal affair— brocade coat of perfect peacock hue and all, complete with outrageously ostentatious millinery— that really steals the show.
Jenny Koons’ adaptation, as previously mentioned, keeps things moving. The plot feels tighter, the humor more crisp, and the quick changes for the actor playing three different roles are astonishing. Joseph McGranaghan tackles the role of Lane, Merriman, and Doctor Chasuble; roles which are more traditionally reserved for two or three separate actors. There are moments when McGranaghan, buttoned up to the teeth as the parish clergyman, dips through the garden door only to reappear a blink later, dressed down to his Merriman role; truly remarkable and expertly well-timed. Koons’ adaptation also creates a wildly humorous notion that perhaps all of the machinations of this tangled, Earnest farce are perhaps not only set in motion but completely controlled by Lady Bracknell herself. The striking moment of stillness at the end, which features Lady Bracknell in a lone drop-spot light, really draws attention to this notion after the idly romantic slow-burn dance shared between the three couples on stage at the play’s conclusion.
Across the board, performances are strong. Each of the seven players holds their own both in witty repartee with the others, quick reactions, and a keen understanding of both comic delivery and spatial awareness. There’s a hysterical half-chase when Miss Prism (Susan Lynskey) is set upon by Lady Bracknell (David Ryan Smith) and the pair go round and round, not dissimilar to the way Algernon (Dylan Marqui Meyers) and Jack (Paul “Paulie” Deo Jr.) give chase to one another when things go hilariously sour between them. Jenny Koons’ use of the space and the way she encourages the performers to move in a perpetually frenetic dance all around one another is absolutely delightful.
Lynskey’s performance as the somewhat dour and reserved Miss Prism definitely gives the audience a chuckle or too, particularly when she’s in her ‘coquettish ignorance’ state playing opposite McGranaghan’s Doctor Chasuble. The pair have an adorable stage chemistry that burbles in the background as the underlying ‘third couple of lesser importance’ in this production of The Importance of Being Earnest. You get sweeping waves of silliness coming from Cecily Cardew (Alex Manalo), particularly when she starts fussing about her diary, though she’s decidedly smitten with Algernon Moncrieff (Dylan Marquis Meyers), even without having met him. Manalo and Meyers have a delectable stage chemistry, even when she becomes cross with him; the pair toe the line of high-camp-frivolity in their comedic exchanges divinely.
Manalo also delivers her half of the infamous ‘Garden Tea Scene’ exceptionally well; the scene is shared with Gwendolen Fairfax (Veronica del Cerro), where the two ladies meet for the first time and things quickly go tea-kettle-up, ending in raucous laughter for the audience. Del Cerro and Manalo quip viciously at one another, though spectacularly guised through bitten-tongue insults and high-rise cheek and elegance; it’s wild and highly amusing for everyone engaging in the tennis-match affair. Del Cerro, in addition to playing exquisitely opposite Manalo’s Cecily, has a gushy and appropriate chemistry for her inveiglement with Jack (Paul “Paulie” Deo Jr.) She and Deo Jr. have a more sophisticated level of intimate attraction, lending itself more toward their character’s respective ages than that of the naïve Cecily and Algernon. Deo Jr. and Meyers, as the excitable Algernon Moncrieff who simply cannot retain his glee over the opportunity to go Bunburying, have a fantastic camaraderie and friendship vibe on stage, right up until it spoils— and mostly over muffins! The muffin-chuffin’ scene is arguably funnier than the ‘Garden Tea Scene’ and that’s largely due to the fact that Deo Jr. and Meyers bicker and needle at one another in a manner that would almost be expected from the two ladies rather than the two gents in the production.
Of course one cannot discuss The Importance of Being Earnest, all its relationships and nuances, without the steam-train that is Lady Bracknell (David Ryan Smith.) Tackling the role like a double-barreled rifle thundering about, Smith is a proper hilarious scream in the role. There’s nothing subtle about Smith’s portrayal and everything done with vigor and rigorous intention. When Smith starts blustering and blasting about, fussing over ‘the handbag’ and later demanding for the whereabout of first Miss Prism and then said handbag, the audience is all but rolling on the floor with the ever-so-hot-fiery antics displayed by Smith in both of these scenes. And yet it’s not a complete farcical sendup; Smith balances the character with this air of poise and severity that puts just a hint of foreboding into his portrayal, which ultimately helps to issue the reward of that final, dialogue-less moment where Lady Bracknell is left standing on the stage in that glorious lone spotlight.
If one is in the country, one will amuse other people, but if one is in town— particularly in Charm City through the end of the month— one can amuse oneself with this hilarious, fresh adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest at Baltimore Center Stage.
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours with one intermission
The Importance of Being Earnest plays through May 26th 2024 in the Head Theatre (upstairs; 4th Floor) at Baltimore Center Stage— 700 North Calvert Street in Baltimore, MD. For tickets, please call the box office at 410-332-0033 or purchase them online.
