the importance of being earnest – rose & crown, e17

WHERE is that baby, Prism??

I have to say that this is one of my absolutely favourite plays.  Oscar Wilde at his witty best.

I remember going to see it MANY years ago (at least 15) at The Aldwych Theatre with possibly the best cast you could wish for – Richard E Grant was Algie and the glorious Maggie Smith perfected Lady Bracknell.  There was also Claire Skinner playing Cecily – but I only knew her from Life Is Sweet at that time, so it felt rather an odd choice back then.  I can’t for the life of me remember who was playing Jack, Gwendolyn, Miss Prism or Father Chasuble, but it may come back to me!

So, as it’s one of my favourites, if I get the chance to see it, I’ll jump at it.  So, imagine my glee when I heard that my local pub (which is a theatre pub) had a production of it this week by Immersion Theatre Ltd.

It was billed as a ‘modern day adaptation’, although I think that this was slightly misleading.  It didn’t feel very adapted to me – apart from the clothing, set and a couple of lines (Hello and Marie Clare were mentioned as were LibDems might as well be Tories!).

The girls were all very strong, Lady Bracknell and Cecily especially.  Father Chasuble was an absolute delight.  Miss Prism didn’t feel quite right – I think they were going for a kind of hippy feel about her, but she didn’t come across as dotty enough to have ever left a baby in a handbag at Victoria!  I thought Algie was OK, but jack was a bit of a let down.  However, we got to see wrestling and nekkid torsos (from the men), so it wasn’t all bad!

For a theatre pub production, I was very happy, and would definitely see something else by the company.

Not only that – it literally takes me about 45 seconds to walk home, so that is a huge added bonus AND I got to meet my first two people that I only know from Twitter!  The lovely @MarcusJDL and @goronwy66 who were totally delightful and I hope I will be able to meet up with again soon

A thoroughly enjoyable evening.  now, where is it on next?  (Blithe Spirit is my other favourite play, btw, and hoping to see that later this year!)