The Importance of being Earnest

27th August 2015 at the Vaudeville Theatre. We had no understudies for the performance:

Full cast list

This was my Mum's choice as I had seen it with her at a local theatre a few years ago and it had been very funny. I was a bit worried about Lady Bracknell being played in drag as I did like having a strong, dominating female lead on the stage last time. 

This production had two intervals, to allow for scene changes. This was a little strange but was fine as the sets were quite big and looked like they took a bit of setting up. There were two different houses and then the garden. The second house was probably the most impressive looking, as the period features and attention to detail was nice. All of the lighting and sound were fine as everyone could be seen and heard at the right times and the sound effects were all good. The costumes were good, obviously the females dresses were the main focus, with Lady Bracknell's being rather large and more over the top, which is what was needed to suit her personality. 

The casting was probably the best part of this production. All of the characters were cast brilliantly. The two male leads matched the personalities of their characters well, as Jack looked more sensible than Algernon, whose hair in particular matched the mischievous nature of his character. I did enjoy David's portrayal of Lady Bracknell as he was very good with his pronunciation and gestures, he even managed to stay in character when a member of the audience presented him with flowers at the curtain call which was quite amusing. I would like to see it played by a woman again though, in a production of that scale, so I could compare and contrast a bit better. The only characters that I found a bit boring were Miss Prism and Revered Canon Chasuble, which I don't think was the actors fault, more so that their charterers are probably the least interesting and you don't see how they fit into the story until the very end. The stand out performance was definitely by the young actress that played Cecily. Her facial expressions and comic timing were brilliant and everybody was talking about how good she was during the intervals and afterwards. She was particularly strong when playing off against Gwendolen who was very good with the more comical lines as well. 

Therefore, the standout performances were by the two young female leads, who worked well with other characters, but their scenes together were excellent. The rest of the cast matched their characters perfectly and to be honest it was one of the best cast productions I have seen. If you want to see a literacy classic then this is definitely worth a visit, especially if you want some fun, a laugh and not a heavy play!

It is on at the Vaudeville until November, here's the website which contains the trailer and some behind the scenes videos: http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/vaudeville-theatre/the_importance_of_being_earnest/

Just a quick note, it was shown live in cinemas across the UK, sorry I missed this and I'll look out for encore screenings, but you can catch recorded showings of it in cinemas in the USA on the 3rd November, here's the link showing you all of the options and links to buy tickets! http://importanceofearnest.com/cinema/