The Importance of Being Earnest

I was expecting this to be a bit camp and funny, it’s Oscar Wilde with Ncuti Gatwa after all, but this packed house had such a lot of fun squeezed into it from the very first scene.  The set is Bridgerton bright, and the costumes are spectacular, from Gatwa’s pink ballgown to Lady Bracknell’s gorgeous outfits and hats.

Let's start with the stately star of the show, Sharon D Clarke as Lady Bracknell, in this iteration as a fierce Caribbean matriarchal battleaxe who will stand no nonsense.  I loved the delivery of ‘a handbag’ where it was kept fresh and funny but not at all as I’m sure we all say it in our heads.  Whenever she was on stage she was the centre that everyone revolved around - a comic delight. Cecily (Eliza Scanlen) has a touch of  Violet Elizabeth from Just William about her while Gwendoline (Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjois) is played as a similarly determined and entitled young woman.  Like everything else in this production their performances are dialled up to 11 and they get some great laughs throughout. 

The casting of Ncuti Gatwa as Algernon was always going to be inspired and he was dazzling, but this is also a joyous pairing with Hugh Skinner as Jack, and both men bounce beautifully off each other throughout, taking the camp as high as they can without completely losing it.  

This play has always had a closeted subtext anyway, but this version really makes the most of every opportunity.  Algernon and Jack are men creating alter egos so that they can live their true lives without scandal reaching them, and I wonder if Bunburyism has ever before been so weighted with innuendo.  However, there’s no getting around the fact that both end up marrying women, although the women do seem rather more interested in each other.  Maybe the scene when all four of the lovers are bundled on a sofa together not quite sure who should be kissing who gives a hint of where this version of the story is really going to go after everyone has gone home and they are left to their own devices.   The tweaks to the original text mixed with the onstage flummery manage to shout the subtext out loud without breaking the original.  There's plenty of meta elements and winks to the audience to keep the audience happy and in on the joke, and this is mixed in with modern references and music, such as a brilliant and very funny use of James Blunt's 'You're Beautiful' performed with much discomfort and very little conviction by Algernon and Jack to their intendeds, which made me (and the rest of the audience) laugh so much we could hardly hear them. 

The ending of the play proper brings the formal proceedings to a close but the finale and curtain call is just spectacular - I wasn’t sure if I was watching a play or a panto or an episode of drag race.  Fabulous.  I'm sure Oscar Wilde would have been proud.

This works perfectly as a December treat packed full of joy.  Loved it!

Before the play we popped into the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.  I always enjoy this one because of the range of subjects and topics that arise, and age seemed a bit of a theme this time, with two of the prizes going to studies of elderly mothers. The first prize winner, Sonam by Steph Wilson was striking in highlighting gender assumptions;  a nude mother and child, at first glance I thought it was a father and child, but the only male signifier was the fake moustache (referencing her wig making profession) and a masculine pose whilst everything else was very clearly female - clever.  My favourite of the prizes though was Adam Ferguson's Big Sky series, views of ancient Australian landscape with subjects highlighting modernity.  All of the entries and prizewinners can be found here and you can vote for your favourite.  I haven't narrowed down my own vote yet but I am tempted by Untitled #1 by Kun Song and Issam 2024 by Sophie Ebrard; then again, another mother and baby portrait, Celia and Shay by Megan Taylor, is just such a deceptively simple composition I like that too.