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Martin Jarvis as John Worthing, in mourning for his brother, the late Ernest Worthing, set to do battle with, er, his very much alive brother . . . Ernest, or at least his friend Algernon, played by Nigel Havers, who is posing as Ernest while Christine Kavanagh as Cecily tries to encourage brotherly love as Rosalind Ayres as Miss Prism watches on. The Importance of Being Earnest
Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
***** I’VE SEEN the
Beatles, Peter O’Toole’s
Macbeth, Dame
Margot Fontaine and Rudolf Nureyev dance
Romeo and Juliet
and now I’ve seen a star-studded cast deliver a steam train of
The Importance of Being Earnest. The production has a cast of amateur actors from
The Bunbury Players on a final dress in an elegant, of-the-period house
– the set is amazing, it even has a ceiling! – as they have many times
before. Cast and character are almost interchangable; for example,
twinkling roué Dickie Oldfield aka Algernon Moncrieff (Nigel Havers) is
‘seeing’ Ellen Whitchurch aka Cecily Cardew (Christine Kavanagh) who is
also wife to Paul aka Rev. Chasuble (David Shaw-Parker). In a neat touch, it is their wedding anniversary
and he has bought her a HANDBAG! I’ll leave you extras to around Oscar
Wilde’s celebrated script immaculately. Martin Jarvis as Tony aka John
aka Ernest Worthing arrives on stage as director/player with a ‘light
hand on the tiller’. Beautiful prop business involves the cast
devouring every plate of cucumber sandwiches and spoiling the entrance
of Lavinia as Lady Bracknell (Sian Phillips). Butler Lane (Nigel
Anthony), house owner and husband to Lavinia, is more interested in
watching the cricket! The story? Elegant urbanite Gwendonline Fairfax
(Carmen de Sautoy), only daughter to Lady Bracknell, is determined to
marry a man called Ernest. John Worthing, in love with Gwendoline, is Ernest
in town and Jack in the country with Ernest as an imaginary brother. Cecily, Jack’s ‘pretty
little ward who is just 18’ in the country, also has a
penchant for
Ernests and twinkling roué Algernon invites himself to have a look.
Reasons for marriage underlie the play, and Lady
Bracknell’s, as she picks a wife for Algernon, is a purely commercial
concern. Lady Bracknell has high hopes for Gwendoline and Jack could be
anybody, he was found in a handbag at Victoria railway station. To summarise horribly, Cecily’s governess Miss
Prism (Rosalind Ayres), with her eye firmly on Rev. Chasuble, turns out
to be the owner of said handbag and so Jack discovers that he is Lady
Bracknell’s nephew and Algernon’s elder brother! This is a must-see production directed by Lucy
Bailey and it’s simple maths – first-class play plus first-class actors
equals first-class theatre. Brilliant. To 03-10-15. Jane Howard
30-09-15
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