My next show brings me back to the National Theatre and for another NT Young Patron club night. This time for “The importance of being Earnest” which opened at the NT Lyttelton theatre on 28th November 2024 and scheduled to closed on 25th January 2025. However has a NT live streaming date for 20 February 2025. The show has a running time of two hours and forty five minutes. It just so happens that I watched the show tonight and will also be seeing it again tomorrow night for the NT Annual supporters celebration which will be tomorrow. It will be at this event we get to hear from some of the creatives and stars of the show. Which I am now very much looking forward to.
Having had this production open back in November I have only heard very good things. From not only the NT staff who one has confessed to seeing the show four times during its run. But also from other theatre going in friends who rated it their favourite show of 2024. So as I took my seat in the Lyttelton stall row K seat 14 I was hoping for good things. I was not disappointed for reason that will be explained throughout this review.
The importance of being Earnest is a well known Oscar Wilde play first performed in 1895. However like most shows I have not seen or studied it before and as a result had no idea of the story. For those who were like me and do not know the story here is a brief synopsis.
The story of two gentleman friends one from the London Algeron Moncreif (Ncuti Gatwa) and one from the country Jack Worthing (Hugh Skinner). Both use a made up relative or friend as an excuse to spend time away from their respective places of origin. Algeron lives in a city house with his trusty butler Lane (Julian Bleach). While using his made up friend Bunbury as an escape to the country mainly from his aunt Lady Bracknell (Shereener Browne, understudy for Sharon D Clarke) and her daughter Gwendolyn Fairfax (Ronke Adekoluejo). While Jack uses Earnest a wicked younger brother who lives in the city. All this to spend time away from his ward Cecile Cardew (Eliza Scanlen) and her mentor Miss Prism (Amanda Lawrence and his butler Merriman (also Julian Bleach). All seems to be fine until Jack attempts to propose to Gwendolyn who only knows him as Earnest. Things get even funnier as Algeron attends Jacks country estate posing as the wicked brother Ernest only to fall in love with Cecile. In the background we also have the love in interest between Reverend Canon Chasuble (Richard Cant) and Miss Prism. Pure comedy ensues especially when Gwendolyn arrives at the country house. As both Algeron and Jack have their want to be engaged partners together at the same time of which neither know the men’s true identity. With an endless amount of revelations throughout the show all producing hilarious twist and turns.
Even though the original Oscar Wilde play was from the 1890s it is surprising how relevant the topics raised throughout the play still are to this day. With topics such as relationships, status and expectation all featured and all more than ever relevant into todays world. This meant that the comedy was still has effective as it was over a hundred years ago. As a comedy play this did not disappoint with fits of laughter an inevitable result of every scene and in some cases most lines. Mainly from the brilliant text which as mentioned the modern day audience was still able to resonate with.
There was some slight modernisation in direction and script changes. This came in the form of some subtle and very funny sexual innuendo sprinkled throughout the play. The sporadic but extremely effective use of modern swear words provided some of the biggest laughs throughout the show. There was also the use of very modern songs in which some of the characters were singing acapella including James Blunt “Your beautiful” which was perfectly timed within the sene and made it even funnier. These little touches of modernisation just built on the already very funny text.
Along with the verbal comedic events, the use of physical comedy was brilliant weather it was a stagger own the seemly steep hill to the physical confrontation of the actors. Both the verbal and physical emphasis on certain words during delveiry just made a funny line even funnier. This is where credit has to be given to the director Max Webster as it was at this places and times when he could really push and rely on the brilliant cast to push comedy point through. For me personally some of the funniest movements came in the form of the audience sides or acknowledgment of the audience. It was this along with the odd forth wall breaking comment which had me laughing extremely out loud. For example comments regarding “We should move on now as we have covered the set change” were brilliant and gave it a more modern feel to the whole play.
This brilliantly directed and written play was not let down by the set and staging at all. In typical NT fashion the set design and attention to detail was outstanding. There was three main scenes/set designs. The first being in side the London house which was very grand, this was the stark contrast to the garden of the country house which was rolls of hills and flowers beds. The last scene was inside the country house in the entrance hall with two very large staircases surrounded by floor to ceiling books shelves. Each set had amazing attention to detail and on a scale which engulfed the whole stage. Each scene was perfectly framed with the ornate almost picture frame quality which can be seen in the view from my seat image above. Each scene was as slick as expected with one minute a London house suddenly after the drop of a curtain a very large garden appeared. The lighting design for all the scenes especially the contrast from the house to the very bright and vivid garden was very impressive.
Not only was the larger set pieces attention detail but as expected from a NT production the prop attention detail was outstanding. With food being mentioned a lot throughout the play the fact that most of the props on stage had to be edible and were consumed on stage again a time to much comedic effect. Just goes to show the amount of work and effect the backstage crew have to put into each production. Not only the edible props were great attention to detail the chairs and larger props were perfectly chosen and added to the whole plays era.
The most impressive part apart from the comedy brilliance was the costume. The costume department at the NT is always amazing however they really did out do themselves with this production. They costume designer Petrova Kourtellaris had a dream scenario with this prodcution. And did not disappointment. Costumes were such an important part of portraying the characters and their personas especially within Algernon Moncrieff. The most impressive part was the “Pretty Women” inspired outfit try on scene. The style for every outfit flambouent or not was perfection and really did steal the show and needed for this production. Below is a link to an NT YouTube video where you hear from some of the costume department talking about this show.
Now for a quick mention of some of the amazing cast individually. However all the cast was perfectly casted and not one disappointed in their role or participation in the production. I will mention a few of the standouts for me personally.
Ncuti Gatwa as Algernon Moncrieff was amazing casting and was born to be on the stage and especially in this role. The casting choice here was genesis could not think of anyone who would and could play this role any better than Ncuti. This was the first time seeing him on stage and the performance was amazing, Ncuti is wasted on TV, lets hope he does more and more theatre in future.
Hugh Skinner as Jack Worthing was perfection. Hugh has a lot of theatre and NT credits however this has to be his stand out performance. The comedic timing and physical theatre was amazing. The connection between himself and Ncuti was superb and fitted the characters brilliantly. He was able to match Ncuti all the any and at some point take over the scene from Algeron.
Julian Bleach as two butlers of the bubbling idiot of Merrimack to the sophisticated Lane. The ability to play both butlers which were polar opposite is a true showcase of brilliant comedy acting. The equal amount of comedy he was able to bring to both very different roles shows a great talent.
On this performance Understudy for Sharon D Clarke as Lady Bracknell was Shereener Browne. Who did not disappoint and for me Sharon D Clarke was not missed at all. I was however surprised that this role was not a larger part due to the high profile casting and for it being such an iconic role.. Either way Shereener brought enough energy and power to the role that was needed.
Eliza Scanlen as Cecile Cardew was brilliant the dialect and accent was perfect for this character and prick used some of the funniest moments with her one liners and report with Ronke as Gwendolyn.
If it is not obvious from this review, I really really enjoyed this production and it definitely lived up to the hype produced by everyone in the theatre world I know. Full details can be found on the NT website.
As a result I give this production 4 out of 5 stars. A brilliant version of the hilarious Oscar Wilde play. With simply perfection casting and amazing costumes. A great production which keeps you laughing and entertained throughout the whole show, with Ncuti Gatwa and Hugh Skinner excelling.
A SPURDLE reviews 