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The importance of being Earnest review

Classical Theater Company (CTC) closes out its season (an all too short season in my opinion) with my favorite Oscar Wilde play, “The importance of being Earnest”.  I’ve previously covered the Dr Faustus performance back in February.

Typically CTC will tweak classic plays to make them more contemporary and relevant to current events.  They chose to do “Hamlet” with a nod to the controversy of the NSA surveillance scandal that was going on at the time.  With “Earnest” they didn’t really tweak it as the play takes place in 1895 and is pretty relatable to today’s audience.

“Earnest” was Wilde’s masterpiece and forms the basis of many of the romantic comedy movies of the last 75 years.  The misunderstandings, the unspoken loves, the complications are all elements to fans of romantic comedies.  Besides that “Earnest” held up a mirror up to Victorian society and exposed some of the ridiculous but all too real opinions and mindsets of the upper class of the era.

The play opens up to Algernon (or Algie) lounging at home.  Algie is a lazy and overprivileged young man.  He doesn’t work and spends all his time pursuing carnal pleasures.  He is expecting his Aunt and his cousin to visit for tea when his friend Ernest from the country shows up.  Ernest is similar to Algie in that he also doesn’t work and lives off his investments.

Ernest is pining for Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolyn, and wants to court her but Algie objects due to an incident in the recent past.  Algie found Ernest’s cigarette case and it is inscribed “To Jack from his little Cecily”.  At first Ernest pretends that this is his aunt but finally confesses that Cecily is his ward and that his name is really Jack.  He has been assuming the name Ernest in order to visit London and lead a double life.  Far from being horrified, Algie congratulates him for his “bunburying” as Algie calls it.  Algie has been doing the same thing but in reverse.  He assumes the name Bunbury while visiting the country to carouse and carry on.  Ernest tells him about his ward, Cecily, and Algie is determined to meet her but Ernest won’t give him his country address for fear that Algie will corrupt her.

Algie’s aunt, Lady Bracknell, arrives with Gwendolyn.  While Algie  distracts his aunt Ernest asks Gwendolyn to marry him.  She readily agrees but when the subject of his first name arises, she confesses that she loves the name Ernest and would not accept being married to a “Jack”.  He then determines to get his name changed at the first opportunity.  Lady Bracknell returns.  She objects to the engagement due to the fact that Ernest is an orphan and was left in a handbag at Victoria station.  As he cannot account for his lineage, Lady Bracknell determines that he is unacceptable and leaves.  Gwendolyn promises to marry Ernest even if she has to run away.  Ernest gives her his address in the county while Algie listens in secret.  Algie calls his butler and gets ready to visit Cecily in the country.

Act 2  begins in the country.  Cecily and her governess, Miss Prism, are in the garden preparing her lessons and discussing “Uncle Jack’s” worthless brother Ernest and his latest escapades.  Miss Prism disapproves of Ernest but Cecily is thoroughly fascinated.  Algie arrives.  He tells everyone that he is Ernest and has come to see his brother Jack, knowing very well that Jack is in London.  Miss Prism won’t leave them alone but Reverend Chausable arrives and asks Miss Prism out for a walk.

Cecily is fascinated by Algie and tells him that she is quite disposed to marry him.  Algie finds himself unexpectedly smitten but when the subject of names comes up it turns out Cecily also adores the name Ernest too and won’t marry him otherwise.  Algie decides to get himself re-christened by Reverend Chausable.

Meanwhile Jack arrives in mourning clothes.  He has decided to “kill off” his fake brother Ernest.  He tells Miss Prism and the reverend that his brother died from a cold in Paris.  He asks Reverend Chausable to re-christen him Ernest in honor of his brother.  Cecily and Algie arrive and Jack is forced to accept Algie as Ernest or else expose the charade.

Act 3 begins with Gwendolyn arriving in the country.  She has run away to be with her Ernest.  She meets Cecily and they both find out that they are both engaged to “Ernest”.  After getting into a huge argument, Jack and Algie arrive and they have to explain the whole farce to their respective fiancées.  Both Cecily and Gwendolyn are furious at being lied to.  They break off their engagements.

After making apologies and both pledging to be re-christened Ernest, the men manage to assuage their fiancées anger and restore the engagements.

Just as all seems well, Lady Bracknell arrives looking for Gwendolyn.  She still opposes Gwendolyn’s engagement.  Algie tells her of his engagement to Cecily and she opposes this until she finds out how much Cecily stands to inherit.  But now Jack objects.  As her guardian he won’t allow the wedding unless Lady Bracknell approves his nuptials.

Miss Prism arrives and Lady Bracknell recognizes her.  It turns out that decades earlier Miss Prism left a handbag with a baby in Victoria station.  At first Jack thinks she is his mother but Miss Prism corrects him on this point.  At this moment Lady Bracknell informs Jack that he is in fact the son of her sister and is therefore Algie’s older brother.  Though she knows Jack was named for his father she can’t remember his first name.  After some research, they determine that Jack’s real name had actually always been Ernest and he declares that at last he has realized the  importance of being earnest.

One thing I will say is that CTC missed an opportunity here to relate this to the “Peter Pan Syndrome“.  Both Jack and Algie are prime examples of males that live for the moment and for their selfish pleasures rather than growing up and accepting responsibilities that their contemporaries are embracing.  I feel something could have been done with this.

The play lasted a little over two hours but the jokes came constantly and the time seemed to pass by quickly.  A thoroughly enjoyable experience.  I can’t wait till the next season of CTC begins sometime in the Fall.

Dr Faustus review

I love small theater venues.  You get a much better sense of what’s going on and the story becomes more intimate.  Actors spend long hours not just memorizing lines but practicing acting and reacting to each other and to the story.  It’s nice to be close enough to see all of that.  Large venues can be impersonal but small venues bring the action almost into your lap.

The Barnvelder (or the Barn) is such a place.  The stage dressing is minimal and the costumes are pretty spare but the acting is top-notch and really that’s what you’re there to see.

I first became aware of the Classical Theater Company at a convention a couple of years ago.  As the name suggests they do only classical works of theater but with small modernizing twists here and there.  Dr Faust was a good example.  The actors were all dressed in 1920s style clothes and old-time music played in the background on a Vitrolla but the story itself wasn’t changed.

Most people just know Dr Faust for the catchphrase “Faustian bargain” but know little more than that.  Often they will confuse it with the American short story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and assume it ends well.

In the story a young German student is deciding what course his life will take.  He is bored with medicine, law, science, and considers religion to be stifling.  However he is fascinated with necromancy and sees it as a liberating field of study that will set him above his fellow-man.

He summons a devil called Mephistopheles and asks for this power.  Mephistopheles  answers that he can only do that if Lucifer allows him and the price for that would be Faust’s soul.  Faust readily agrees without thought and signs a contract for 24 years.  He assumes he has cheated Lucifer as he does not believe that the soul exists and that when he dies nothing will happen to him even though Lucifer has made it plain what it will happen and introduces him to the seven deadly sins.

So for the next few years Faust and Mephistopheles travel the world and do whatever they want.  They pester the Pope, they meet with royalty, they summon the spirits of Alexander the great and Helen of Troy, and generally Faust has a good time, until he meets an old man on a country road.

The old man tells Faust that he has squandered the most precious thing he owns for petty gains and that he will spend eternity in torment for it.  This creates doubt in Faust and his resolve cracks.  He thinks about repenting but Mephistopheles chastises him.  Faust says that he will never again repent if he could spend a night of passion with Helen of Troy.  Mephistopheles grants his wish.

As his time is coming to an end Faust becomes more and more worried.  He begins to see that he has made a horrible bargain.  On his final day on Earth he tries to repent and pray but is restrained by the bargain he had made with Mephistopheles.  He cries out to the mountains to hide him, to the ground to open up and swallow him and to the stars to lift him up but it is to no avail.  Hell opens up and drags him off.

The play itself was portrayed by 4 actors.

James Belcher from the Alley theater acting company portrayed Mephistopheles

Adam Gibbs played the title role of Faust,

Dain Geist who had previously played Hamlet played the part of the chorus as well as other small parts such as Lucifer, and the pope,

Joanna Hubbard who played Ophelia in Hamlet was also part of the chorus and other small parts such as Helen of troy and a cardinal.