REVIEW: The Importance of Being Earnest by The Lawrence Batley Theatre (Online)

After the wonderful modern reimagining of the Oscar Wilde story of The Picture of Dorian Gray, I was excited to see that Lawrence Batley Theatre (whose artistic director, Henry Filloux-Bennett, had written the version) were producing another adaption of a classic Oscar Wilde play, The Importance of Being Earnest. It is perhaps my favourite of his plays, written in 1895, with witty dialogue in a farcical situation in which Jack Worthing leads a double life with a serious attitude in the country under the name Jack and assumes the name Earnest in London. The confusion is multiplied when his friend Algernon Moncrief turns up in his country home as Earnest. 

Adapter Yasmeen Khan updates this by making Algy an “internationally famous good looking and successful” actor (played by Tom Dixon) the mentor of the not very successful Northern Vlogger Earnest (real name Jamil) played by Gurjeet Singh. Earnest is in love with Gul (Nikki Patel) the daughter of Mrs Bergum (Mina Anwar, who also directs) while Algy becomes desperate to meet Earnest’s “cousin/sister/aunt” Safina (Zoe Iqbal) who lives in the country and is being guided by her Lifestyle guru Mrs Prism (Melanie Marshall). The parallels to the original are easy to see but whereas the Picture of Dorian Gray adaption still felt true to Oscar Wilde’s characters and the updating brilliantly made it relevant to today, this adaption is a curious mash-up.

There are out of place references to game shows of the past like “let's have a look at what you could have won” or you “don’t get anything for a pair, not in this game” and a very odd “Who wants to be a suitable boy” quiz. This is followed by an excruciatingly embarrassing scene of “The morning after the night before” hosted by Hugh Dennis as Tony and Sindhu Vee as Libby which is a waste of their talent. Divina De Campo makes a cameo appearance as a social media adviser and Harriet Thorpe appears as Earnest’s ineffective agent Alison from Alison, Alison, Alison, and Alison. Together these references to the modern TV medium and the acting profession feel like a rather overdone in-joke that seemed funnier on paper than when filmed.

There is a very strong diversity and inclusivity message throughout. Early on Earnest is told “don’t see enough people like you in this industry” and advised as a “British Asian to be himself”. Then in Act 2, he has a video call with a director, Steve Merrimen (played by Paul Chandi) who says he “wants to work” with Earnest and advises him to “let the brown out” before encouraging him to tell me about the “bastard ‘ills”. This parody of a stereotypical “lovie” is perhaps the most telling and far more effective than the cardboard cut-out Northerners with phrases such as “reet good”, “let’s have a brew” and references to “t ’mill”. 

Overall, this is well-produced and acted but I found the parodies and allusions irritating, the script not as witty as the original and the references to include Bunbury-ing and Lady Bracknall’s holdall in Huddersfield weak. It felt that the script needed another edit to sharpen it up, to develop the caricatures, to improve the sending up of the acting profession, agents and vloggers and make the diversity and inclusion message more hard-hitting. It would have given this strong cast something to really get their teeth into and give us an “importance of being earnest” for the 21stcentury- funny, relevant to a social media-obsessed world and reflecting the changing attitudes to peoples background and names.

Review by Nick Wayne

Rating: ★★★

Seat: Online | Price of Ticket: £12