The Importance of Being Earnest
According to the Wikipedia entry, The Importance of Being Earnest is “regarded by many critics and scholars as being the wittiest play in the English Langauge”. To be completely honest, I’ve only ever seen serious plays with occasional comedic touches (Rhinoceros, Streetcar) so I’m not qualified to say on that matter.
It was a very amusing play, though. I’d been wanting to read/see something by Oscar Wilde for some time – this was a good opportunity, and I came out very impressed with both the script and the acting. The characters are all brilliantly portrayed through their lines, but the actors seemed to have personified the personalities perfectly. The set was well designed, with the switch between acts two and three just rotating the props by a hundred and eighty degrees around the centre of the stage. Algernon and Cecily were particularly good, in fact it almost seemed like Algernon was the main character, not Jack.
As I said when seeing A Streetcar Named Desire, seeing plays makes me want to act. It’s quite worrying – if I see any more plays I’m sure I’ll end up acting in something at uni, and that could end badly. I guess I’ve got the safety net of knowing no director in their right mind would give me any kind of leading role.
Do yourselves a favour and take any opportunity you have to see this play. I don’t know if it’s the wittiest English-language play, but it must be up there.
Currently listening to If I Didn’t Have You – Randy Newman
Matthew @ 12:19, August 29, 2005 to Reviews | Comments (2)
Comments:
Owen
Try reading ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ (think it’s that rather than grey). Tis very good. I’ve also seen a play of it which i thought was quite amusing seeing as it was Oscar Wilde’s only novel and he mainly wrote plays… Anywho, it’s a good read.
Comment added at 19:22, September 6, 2005
Salmon of Doubt
The Picture of Dorian Gray is amazing. I haven’t yet read Streetcar, but I want to as most of Tenessee Williams’ plays are absolutely brilliant. I’d love to see one performed. You should read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, it’ll only take you half an hour or so. Only. :P
Comment added at 22:20, November 29, 2005
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