…Earnest? - Udderbelly Underbelly George Square - Review

With the Edinburgh Fringe, there is always so much to see, so much to choose from and I’m here to tell you that sometimes it’s just worth giving something a go, because you might just stumble across a gem that stays with you. That is exactly what happened to me during my first ever trip to the fringe in 2022 when I found a show called The Importance of Being…Earnest? By a company called Say It Again, Sorry? Since that day this show, now called simply …Earnest? Has become a huge part of my life and I’ve been fortunate enough to see it grow and grow, embarking on UK tours, expanding their set from a simple wall, sofa and piano to grander elements and moving into perhaps one of the fringe’s most iconic venues, Violet the famous upside down cow.

Fresh from winning Pick of the Fringe at the 2026 Adelaide Fringe, Say it Again, Sorry? return to Udderbelly with their take on Oscar Wilde’s classic The Importance of Being Earnest, taking audience interaction to the extreme and raising the roof (does a cow have a roof?) with laughter.  Here, Simon Slough (Ashley Cavender) is staging his production of The Importance of Being Earnest, and it’s all going swimmingly, until the actor playing the role of Earnest fails to turn up. There’s only one thing he can do to save his show, and it’s to cast an audience member to play the role instead. And as more problems arise for Simon’s performers, more audience members become involved.

What follows is a master class in what can only be described as theatre making tightrope walking, balancing literally anything could happen with carefully crafted chaos. Audience member performers are guided with scatterings of scripts here and there, Simon’s instructions and gentle reassurances from the cast members they are plonked onto stage with, all with increasingly hilarious results as somehow the story, for the most part, is kept on track.

Within the Say It Again, Sorry? Cast you have performers each playing multiple roles. Guido Garcia Lueches plays nervous, rule abiding Terry playing carefree Algernon, determined to stick to their blocking no matter what with Rhys Tees playing multi rolling Graham as Lane and Merriman, constantly trying to be someone with solutions rather than problems to avoid Simon’s increasing anger. Trynity Silk’s Jen as Gwendoline perhaps bites off more than she can chew with chaotic effects and Judith Amsenga as Eleanor playing the not to be messed with Lady Bracknell has some advice for the audience member actors.

For this section of the Ed Fringe run, Ashley Cavender having previously played several other roles in the show steps into the shoes of the director Simon Slough (named after the company’s real director Simon Paris), skilfully working the crowd to find just the right fit, including on one occasion Tom Read Wilson (someone with the most beautiful of reading voices) to fill in for one role. His stage team is completed by Ben Mann as the Jack of all trades stage manager Josh, always running around to clean up and fix up, just don’t run too fast Josh, same rules as swimming pools remember.

It takes an awful lot of skill, care and thought to stage a production where at one point audience members outnumber actual cast members on stage and that is a real credit to the Say It Again, Sorry? Team. What they have created here is a true celebration of live theatre inviting the audience to step out of their comfort zones, to have fun and just get stuck in. And the audiences here have truly embraced the madness of it all, which is wonderful to see.

Since finding this show in 2022, I have seen it go from strength to strength and I can’t wait to see what is next for …Earnest? Maybe finally well deserved London run? We can hope.