Review: 'The Importance of Being Earnest' at Hope Summer Repertory Theatre
Artistic Director Lenny Banovez is dropping a classic smack into the middle of Hope Summer Repertory Theatre’s (HSRT) season with Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
The comedy of manners, one beloved through the ages for its word play and the ludicrous situations its callow characters get themselves into, continues to inspire laughter just as it has since its premiere on Valentine’s Day, 1895.
Under Banovez’ direction, the HSRT ensemble demonstrates why this satirical comedy continues to delight audiences who no longer exist inside the Victorian society which the play skewers. It is a play that charms with its words, enchants with its absurdity and enlightens with the way it calls out people’s trivialities and shallowness.
The play opens with Algernon Moncrieff (Michael Manocchio) and Jack Worthing (Ali Louis Bourzgui) in a drawing room revealing how they escape their social obligations by creating fictitious people that they are constantly having to “rescue.” Manocchio and Bourzgui both sport convincing British accents that are always clear and easy to understand and conduct themselves with the mannerisms associated with British upper class.
They fully commit to characters who have the air of high society while being unapologetically ridiculous in the views that they hold and the behavior that they exhibit. They look, as Jack’s ward complains at one point, like everyone else and their behavior creates characters that seem familiar even though they are more than a century old.
Their two opposites—Psacoya Guinn as Gwendolen Fairfax, Jack’s love interest, and Maggie Wetzel as Cecily Cardew, Jack’s ward and Algernon’s love interest—surpass the gentlemen in their affectations and physicality. The script describes them as beautiful, and both of them are, but what makes them command the stage is not their appearance, but the passion they bring to the roles.
Guinn, who just recently starred in HSRT’s “The Mountaintop,” is the lady of the city and high society. Her posture speaks worlds to her character and she can grab attention even with her affected still poses. It makes for a riveting contrast when she begins to express her passion for Jack, whom she is convinced is named Earnest.
Wetzel mines all the traditional elements of the country innocent, only making it a caricature when it suits the moment to do so, something Wetzel expertly interprets so that her Cecily is always amusing.
The chemistry between the two leading ladies makes the scenes between them spark—whether they are the best of friends or the worst of enemies.
Lady Bracknell is one of the play’s most iconic characters, frequently played by a man in woman’s clothing. Banovez stays true to this convention, casting HSRT longtime favorite Chip DuFord as Gwendolen’s overbearing mother who counts marriage as simply a societal currency to better purchase the status of her relations.
DuFord relies on the inherent comedy in the role itself, forgoing the cheap and easy laughs that rely oly on the costume. Part of the beauty of his performance is that it quickly becomes easy to forget the gender of either the actor or the character. There is no falsetto to his voice, he instead pulls on Lady Bracknell’s innate power and finds the humor in the words and actions. He dominates the others because that is what Lady Bracknell does, an older relative determined to control everyone around her.
As an artistic director who has taken the theater company in new directions in ways both subtle and overt, Banovez chooses a very conventional interpretation of this classic play. It is, perhaps, a gift to audience members who are coming out of a year of change and challenges. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is presented in a way that is familiar and reassuring. It gives audiences absurd people to laugh at who are harmless, a welcome break from the stream of reality.
Scenic Designer Maggie Nelson displays the high level of production values HSRT is known for while adapting it to the outside venue. She cleverly creates narrow backdrops that can be reversed during intermission to create first Algernon’s aristocratic living room and then Jack’s country manor garden. The former is painted in lush, royal blues while the latter overflows with flowers both pink and yellow. Both provide instant settings and contrasts while being highly functional for the hijinks that the actors perform on them.
Anthony Paul-Cavaretta cavorts with the period costumes, from the flamboyant hats worn by Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen to the simple country dress that drapes Cecily. Each costume tells a story and is done without compromise.
“The Importance of Being Earnest” calls for a properties designer who can find or make period pieces as specific as a cigarette case to as general as a stack of textbooks. Lucy Mott proves she is up to this task with everything from a beautiful layer cake and cucumber sandwiches to diaries and old-fashioned hand bags.
Between committed actors willing to make comedic choices and the skills of the technical and artistic staff, “The Importance of Being Earnest” provides the audience with a night of laughter and the experience of one of Wilde’s best works.