THEATRE REVIEW: The Importance of being Earnest, The Lowry

Feb 7 2008 by Malcolm Handley, Liverpool Daily Post

WHEN delivered with the charm, wit and pace Oscar Wilde wove into his work, his dialogue transports us back to a time when manners, humour and society had standing.

When delivered very well, it not only makes us aware of another era it alerts us to the timelessness of dilemmas, conceits, power and fashions.

This production by The Middle Ground Theatre company starts off well enough with promising exchanges, a fair bit of pace and a certain affection for Wilde’s talents but somewhere between the first and second acts – while the audience is busy with interval drinks and banter – it falls apart.

Some of the blame must be delivered to director Michael Lunney, who allows his charges to drift off into the suburbs of Am-Dram-Land.

Chief culprit is Zoie Kennedy who laces the role of Cecily Cardew with over-enthusiastic simplic-ity which makes him appear a casting candi-date for village idiot.

Jim Alexander’s second and third act performance only adds to the problem as his Algernon Moncrieff slips back and forth between sophisticated drama and Panto.

Only Tony Britton escapes the malady and one suspects that, if his character of Reverend Chasuble had more time on stage, he, too, may have succumbed.

Tom Butcher as Jack Worthing and Corrine Wicks as Gwendolen Fairfax had some affinity for Wilde’s talent but they too succumbed grinningly into the stage arboretum.